Description: Kate Chopin, according to her contemporaries, was a "woman of mysterious fascination" -- and Kate Chopin's Private Papers reveals many of the author's secrets. Chopin (1850-1904), author of about a hundred short stories and two novels (The Awakening and At Fault), also kept diaries, wrote letters and poems, translated short stories and articles from the French, and worried about her career Her first surviving diary (1860s) shows her growth from a thoughtful adolescent through an ambivalent belle to a woman coming of age on her honeymoon; her second (1890s) reveals the ironic, sometimes poignant picture of an author on her own, striving for literary success in a world of "philistines". Chopin's newly-discovered manuscripts, reprinted for the first time here, show her dedication to revision and improving her craft; her manuscript account books show her meticulous control of her career and her pursuit of audiences. These papers illuminate the growth of Chopin as a writer, reveal the reactions of critics to her work, and settle a number of controversies in Chopin studies. Editor Emily Toth provides a biographical introduction to the book, while co-editor Per Seyersted provides a critical preface. Kate Chopin, as revealed in her private papers, was a complex, witty, thoughtful, ambitious professional writer, whose career was cut short too soon.

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