Kate (O’Flaherty) Chopin was born in Missouri the middle of the Victorian Era and grew up a strong, independent woman. Her husband, Oscar Chopin, “allowed” his wife freedom that most women of her day could only dream of having. But that independence and freedom were to become important to her family of five boys and two girls when Oscar died, leaving her their sole support. Eventually Kate had to write in order to support her family.
She began with her first novel, At Fault, published in 1890, followed by two short story collections. However, it is her book, The Awakening, (1899) about a woman’s separation from her husband and children, an affair and self-realization that has placed Kate Chopin in the forefront of women writers of the Nineteenth Century.
1chopinThe themes in The Awakening caused an uproar when it was published and Chopin found herself ostracized. Therefore, she decided not to add her voice to the changes that were occurring for women as the dawning of the new century. Chopin died on August 22, 1904 of a cerebral hemorrhage—an independent voice for women’s freedom and artistic rights silenced too early.
French-born writer, Anais Nin, is considered one of the finest female erotic authors. She was also a diarist, living among famous intellectual men of the 1940s and writing about her relationship with them. But, like Kate Chopin before her, it is Nin’s erotica that broke new ground for other women to write about their sexuality, especially during a time when women were not really considered sexual beings.