CHOPIN, KATE [O'FLAHERTY, KATHARINE]
Bayou Folk. Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894. First edition, inscribed "Miss Mabel Holden/from her sincere friend/Kate Chopin/March 26/1894"--i.e. inscribed two days after publication (the book was advertised for March 24 in a Publisher's Weekly ad of March 17, see B.A.L.). Original green sateen cloth, gray coated endpapers. 6 7/8 x 4 1/2 inches (17 x 11 cm); (iv), 313 pp. (p.314 blank), 2 pp. advertisements. Spine very slightly faded with a small spot, very light binding wear overall, but a very sound and attractive copy, the hinges uncracked.
This was Kate Chopin's first book of short stories, and includes a number of important proto-feminist works, most notably Desiree's Baby, a tale of miscegenation, and La Belle Zoraide. Inscribed copies of any of her works are rare. While we cannot definitively identify the recipient, there seems a strong likelihood that this was Mabel C. Holden, a socially well-connected St. Louis resident whose song cycle Five Songs (with lyrics by W.M.C.) was published by Thiebes-Stierlin Music in St. Louis in 1896. Holden lived on Locust Avenue in St. Louis as of 1895; Chopin on Morgan Street, no great distance away. B.A.L. 3244.