Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
Her work went unrecognized (at times it was even scorned)
during her lifetime.
Married at nineteen, Chopin had six children.
o At 31, Chopin lost her husband Oscar to swamp fever. It was
after her husband’s death that Kate began to write.
1890-Chopin publishes her first novel.
Chopin’s dominant theme is the repression of women in Victorian
America.
o This theme was presented most dramatically in her novel The
Awakening- a story about a woman who breaks the confines
of marriage and defies the Victorian ideals of motherhood.
The novel was greeted with hostility by American critics
and removed from circulation in St. Louis libraries.
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
The strengths that distinguish Robinson are his use of traditional
poetic forms and his wise and ironic view of human behavior.
Gardiner, the town where Robinson resided for over 25 years,
became the Tilbury Town of his poems. Tilbury Town is the
home of some of his most famous characters
Eventually Robinson moved to New York City where he
published his first book but was barely supporting himself with
odd jobs.
o His work was admired by the president of the United States,
Theodore Roosevelt.
When Roosevelt learned that Robinson was struggling
to get by, he offered Robinson a job as a clerk. Robinson
held the job for five years.
A year after he resigned, Robinson published The Town
Down the River and dedicated it to Roosevelt.
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