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.