Opal Whiteley
Encyclopedia
Opal Whiteley was an American nature writer
and diarist whose childhood journal was first published in 1920 as The Story of Opal in serialized form in the Atlantic Monthly, then later that same year as a book with the title The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart.
Whiteley's true origins and the veracity of her diary were disputed during her lifetime, and continue to be questioned today.
, who died unmarried in 1901. According to Whiteley, she was taken to Oregon
in 1904 and brought to a lumber camp where she was adopted by Ed and Lizzie Whiteley. While Opal Whiteley used several names during her lifetime, the one she preferred and was later buried under was Françoise Marie de Bourbon-Orléans.
Family members claim that Opal Irene Whiteley was born in Colton, Washington
, the first of five children. In 1903, after having spent almost a year in Wendling, Oregon
, the Whiteley family moved to Walden, Oregon
, near the town of Cottage Grove
. Whiteley grew up in small towns near various lumber camps, usually in poverty.
Whiteley claimed (and her grandmother Acseh Smith concurred) that Whiteley's mother often disciplined her with severe corporal punishment
. Whiteley's diary includes many accounts of punishment by "the mamma." The negative portrait of her mother caused Whiteley to become estranged from her family, particularly since the other children claimed they were never abused. The controversy may have contributed to the effort to discredit Whiteley's narrative as a hoax since it was considered disloyal for grown children to question their parents' right to have disciplined them, however severely.
Biographers have confirmed that at an early age, Whiteley was a noted amateur naturalist and a child prodigy
who was able to memorize and categorize vast amounts of information on plants and animals. One of her schoolteachers, Lily Black, felt that Whiteley was a genius; she was two grades ahead of her age in school, and Black took advantage of the then-new inter-library loan system to get books for Whiteley from the Oregon State Library
. In 1915, newspaper editor Elbert Bede began a series of articles in the Oregonian
about her, filled with glowing praise.
When she attended university in 1916, Whiteley was still living at home. When her mother and grandfather died, she moved out and began supporting herself solely through her lectures.
Whiteley traveled to India in the 1920s as her supposed biological father had done: she was the guest of the Maharaja
of Udaipur
, and wrote several articles about India for British magazines. Her presence caused some trouble with the British government in India, especially when a local cleric fell in love with her. Leaving India, she eventually settled in London. She grew increasingly disturbed, and was often in dire poverty.
Whiteley suffered a head injury during the bombing of London, and soon thereafter was committed to Napsbury psychiatric hospital
. Whiteley was known to the staff of Napsbury as "the Princess," and visitors remarked that she actually behaved like one. Whiteley remained at Napbury until her death. She was buried at Highgate Cemetery
, where her gravestone bears both her names with the inscription "I spake as a child".
As a teenager, Whiteley joined the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour
and rose to the position of State Superintendent. She began tutoring local children and young adults in natural history. She became famous throughout the region as the "Sunshine Fairy" and gave numerous lectures on geology and natural history. Attending the University of Oregon
in fall 1916, she was reportedly regarded in awe by professors and students alike.
, publisher of the Atlantic Monthly, she arranged to publish her childhood diary instead, which if authentic, would have been written c. 1903-4.
According to Sedgwick in the foreword to the published diary, Whiteley brought in Fairyland, and when asked about her background, her detailed memory led Sedgwick to ask if she had kept a diary. When she replied that she had, but it was torn to pieces, Sedgwick requested that she re-assemble it. However, one of Whiteley's biographers uncovered a letter from Whiteley to Sedgwick in which she requests an appointment with him and describes having kept accounts of her observations of the natural world from a very early age. If this is true, Sedgwick may have partially invented the tale of how Whiteley's diary came to his attention. Sedgwick claimed that Everett Baker, an attorney and head of the Christian Endeavour
organization in Oregon, wrote a letter to him that said that on two occasions Whiteley's mother admitted to him and his wife that Whiteley was adopted.
Photos which initially appeared in The Story of Opal showed Whiteley at work on the reconstruction and pictures of two of the diary pages. The diary was apparently block-printed in crayon and phonetically spelled on various types of paper. According to Sedgwick's account of the reconstruction, it was a laborious undertaking, as many of the torn pieces were only large enough to contain a single letter and the pieces had been stored in a hat box for years.
based much of his argument for authenticity on the premise that it would have been an extraordinarily elaborate deception for the adult Whiteley to first create a diary as a child might have printed it, then tear it up, store it and re-assemble it for Sedgwick and the Atlantic Monthly. Further, he indicated that he personally examined some of the few remaining diary pages and that chemical tests of the crayon markings showed that the crayons were manufactured prior to World War I. This claim was initially made by Lawrence in Opal Whiteley, The Unsolved Mystery, who said she had had the diary pages submitted for scientific scrutiny.
Some claim that she fabricated the diary to gain publicity and that she suffered from a psychological disease (possibly schizophrenia
) that led her to engage in fantasies about her "true" parents.
and again, with a new afterword, in 1994. Lawrence's version has been reissued in an expanded edition as Opal Whiteley, the Mystery Continues.
Hoff's reprint of the journal contains a detailed account of his research into Opal's life and the origins of her diary, and supplies evidence that concludes that the diary was authentically created in childhood, but he disbelieved Whiteley's claims of her adoption.
Though the U.S. copyright of her diary has lapsed, the international copyright is still extant and is held by the Library of the University of London
. The full dramatic rights to the diary are held by Robert Lindsey-Nassif, author of the Off-Broadway musical, Opal, which won the Richard Rodgers and AT&T Awards.
In 1984, an adaptation of her diary was published by Jane Boulton, under the name "Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart."
The diary was adapted into an off-Broadway musical by Robert Lindsey-Nassif, opening in New York in 1992, published by Samuel French, Inc.
The international copyright to the diary is still in effect and is controlled by the Librarian of the University of London.
Opal's book, The Fairyland Around Us, of which only several original copies are known to exist, was transcribed and reproduced on a website in 1999 by David A. Caruso.
Nature writing
Nature writing is generally defined as nonfiction prose writing about the natural environment. Nature writing often draws heavily on scientific information and facts about the natural world; at the same time, it is frequently written in the first person and incorporates personal observations of and...
and diarist whose childhood journal was first published in 1920 as The Story of Opal in serialized form in the Atlantic Monthly, then later that same year as a book with the title The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart.
Whiteley's true origins and the veracity of her diary were disputed during her lifetime, and continue to be questioned today.
Biography
Whiteley claimed to be the daughter of Henri, Prince of OrléansHenri, Prince of Orléans
Prince Henri of Orléans was the eldest son surviving to adulthood of Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres and Princess Françoise of Orléans.-Biography:Henri was born at Ham, London....
, who died unmarried in 1901. According to Whiteley, she was taken to Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
in 1904 and brought to a lumber camp where she was adopted by Ed and Lizzie Whiteley. While Opal Whiteley used several names during her lifetime, the one she preferred and was later buried under was Françoise Marie de Bourbon-Orléans.
Family members claim that Opal Irene Whiteley was born in Colton, Washington
Colton, Washington
Colton is a town in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 418 at the 2010 census.- History :Colton was first settled in 1879 by J.A. Cole, and was founded in 1882 by J.B. Stanley. Colton was incorporated in 1890 however it was not recorded until 1893.-Notable natives:*...
, the first of five children. In 1903, after having spent almost a year in Wendling, Oregon
Wendling, Oregon
Wendling is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States, located northeast of Marcola. Wendling's post office operated from 1899 to 1952. It was named for X. Wendling, a local lumberman....
, the Whiteley family moved to Walden, Oregon
Walden, Oregon
Walden is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Walden is southeast of Cottage Grove and uses the ZIP code 97424, which is a Cottage Grove ZIP code....
, near the town of Cottage Grove
Cottage Grove, Oregon
Cottage Grove is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It received its name from its first postmaster, G. C. Pierce, in September 1861. Pierce's home at the time was in an oak grove. The population was 9,686 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. Whiteley grew up in small towns near various lumber camps, usually in poverty.
Whiteley claimed (and her grandmother Acseh Smith concurred) that Whiteley's mother often disciplined her with severe corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
. Whiteley's diary includes many accounts of punishment by "the mamma." The negative portrait of her mother caused Whiteley to become estranged from her family, particularly since the other children claimed they were never abused. The controversy may have contributed to the effort to discredit Whiteley's narrative as a hoax since it was considered disloyal for grown children to question their parents' right to have disciplined them, however severely.
Biographers have confirmed that at an early age, Whiteley was a noted amateur naturalist and a child prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
who was able to memorize and categorize vast amounts of information on plants and animals. One of her schoolteachers, Lily Black, felt that Whiteley was a genius; she was two grades ahead of her age in school, and Black took advantage of the then-new inter-library loan system to get books for Whiteley from the Oregon State Library
Oregon State Library
The Oregon State Library in Salem, is the library for the U.S. state of Oregon. The mission of the Oregon State Library is to provide quality information services to Oregon state government, provide reading materials to blind and print-disabled Oregonians, and provide leadership, grants, and other...
. In 1915, newspaper editor Elbert Bede began a series of articles in the Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
about her, filled with glowing praise.
When she attended university in 1916, Whiteley was still living at home. When her mother and grandfather died, she moved out and began supporting herself solely through her lectures.
Whiteley traveled to India in the 1920s as her supposed biological father had done: she was the guest of the Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
of Udaipur
Udaipur
Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...
, and wrote several articles about India for British magazines. Her presence caused some trouble with the British government in India, especially when a local cleric fell in love with her. Leaving India, she eventually settled in London. She grew increasingly disturbed, and was often in dire poverty.
Whiteley suffered a head injury during the bombing of London, and soon thereafter was committed to Napsbury psychiatric hospital
Napsbury
Napsbury is a residential area to the West of London Colney in the district of St. Albans in Hertfordshire. It was formerly the site of a major psychiatric hospital.-Early history:...
. Whiteley was known to the staff of Napsbury as "the Princess," and visitors remarked that she actually behaved like one. Whiteley remained at Napbury until her death. She was buried at Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
, where her gravestone bears both her names with the inscription "I spake as a child".
Nature writing
According to Whiteley and her grandmother, as a child Whiteley was usually punished for daydreaming and "meditations," for running away to go on "explores" instead of working, for misguided attempts to help around the house which ended in disaster, and especially the time and effort she spent on caring for the animals around the lumber camp. She had a great many animal friends, both wild and domestic, to whom she gave fanciful names derived from her readings in classical literature. Despite her troubles, Whiteley wrote of her childhood as though she had often been very happy: even after a severe beating, she could write "I'm real glad I'm alive."As a teenager, Whiteley joined the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour
The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was a nondenominational evangelical society founded in Portland, Maine, in 1881 by Francis Edward Clark...
and rose to the position of State Superintendent. She began tutoring local children and young adults in natural history. She became famous throughout the region as the "Sunshine Fairy" and gave numerous lectures on geology and natural history. Attending the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
in fall 1916, she was reportedly regarded in awe by professors and students alike.
Diary
Whiteley attempted to self-publish a textbook, The Fairyland Around Us, which was developed from her popular talks on the natural world. Unfortunately, she ran out of money for Fairyland and was only able to send a limited number of copies to subscribers. She then went in search of a commercial publisher, without success. However, in a meeting with Ellery SedgwickEllery Sedgwick
Ellery Sedgwick was an American editor, brother of Henry Dwight Sedgwick.-Early life:He was born in New York City to Henry Dwight Sedgwick II and Henrietta Ellery , grand daughter of William Ellery...
, publisher of the Atlantic Monthly, she arranged to publish her childhood diary instead, which if authentic, would have been written c. 1903-4.
According to Sedgwick in the foreword to the published diary, Whiteley brought in Fairyland, and when asked about her background, her detailed memory led Sedgwick to ask if she had kept a diary. When she replied that she had, but it was torn to pieces, Sedgwick requested that she re-assemble it. However, one of Whiteley's biographers uncovered a letter from Whiteley to Sedgwick in which she requests an appointment with him and describes having kept accounts of her observations of the natural world from a very early age. If this is true, Sedgwick may have partially invented the tale of how Whiteley's diary came to his attention. Sedgwick claimed that Everett Baker, an attorney and head of the Christian Endeavour
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour
The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was a nondenominational evangelical society founded in Portland, Maine, in 1881 by Francis Edward Clark...
organization in Oregon, wrote a letter to him that said that on two occasions Whiteley's mother admitted to him and his wife that Whiteley was adopted.
Photos which initially appeared in The Story of Opal showed Whiteley at work on the reconstruction and pictures of two of the diary pages. The diary was apparently block-printed in crayon and phonetically spelled on various types of paper. According to Sedgwick's account of the reconstruction, it was a laborious undertaking, as many of the torn pieces were only large enough to contain a single letter and the pieces had been stored in a hat box for years.
Debate over diary's authenticity
Benjamin HoffBenjamin Hoff
Benjamin Hoff is an author based in the United States. Two of his books on Taoism, The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, were on best seller lists. Hoff grew up in Sylvan, Oregon, where he acquired a fondness of the natural world that has been highly influential in his writing.Hoff obtained a...
based much of his argument for authenticity on the premise that it would have been an extraordinarily elaborate deception for the adult Whiteley to first create a diary as a child might have printed it, then tear it up, store it and re-assemble it for Sedgwick and the Atlantic Monthly. Further, he indicated that he personally examined some of the few remaining diary pages and that chemical tests of the crayon markings showed that the crayons were manufactured prior to World War I. This claim was initially made by Lawrence in Opal Whiteley, The Unsolved Mystery, who said she had had the diary pages submitted for scientific scrutiny.
Some claim that she fabricated the diary to gain publicity and that she suffered from a psychological disease (possibly schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
) that led her to engage in fantasies about her "true" parents.
Reprints, adaptations and productions
The diary was reprinted in 1962 with a lengthy foreword by E.S. Bradburne (Elizabeth Lawrence), as Opal Whiteley, the Unsolved Mystery. It was reprinted in 1986 with a biography and foreword by Benjamin HoffBenjamin Hoff
Benjamin Hoff is an author based in the United States. Two of his books on Taoism, The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, were on best seller lists. Hoff grew up in Sylvan, Oregon, where he acquired a fondness of the natural world that has been highly influential in his writing.Hoff obtained a...
and again, with a new afterword, in 1994. Lawrence's version has been reissued in an expanded edition as Opal Whiteley, the Mystery Continues.
Hoff's reprint of the journal contains a detailed account of his research into Opal's life and the origins of her diary, and supplies evidence that concludes that the diary was authentically created in childhood, but he disbelieved Whiteley's claims of her adoption.
Though the U.S. copyright of her diary has lapsed, the international copyright is still extant and is held by the Library of the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. The full dramatic rights to the diary are held by Robert Lindsey-Nassif, author of the Off-Broadway musical, Opal, which won the Richard Rodgers and AT&T Awards.
In 1984, an adaptation of her diary was published by Jane Boulton, under the name "Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart."
The diary was adapted into an off-Broadway musical by Robert Lindsey-Nassif, opening in New York in 1992, published by Samuel French, Inc.
The international copyright to the diary is still in effect and is controlled by the Librarian of the University of London.
Opal's book, The Fairyland Around Us, of which only several original copies are known to exist, was transcribed and reproduced on a website in 1999 by David A. Caruso.
External links
- Transcript of the diary with additional resources, from the University of Oregon
- The Fairyland Around Us a web-based reproduction by David A. Caruso
- Opal Whiteley papers in the University of LondonUniversity of London-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
archives - "The Fantastic Tale of Opal Whiteley" by Steve McQuiddy from Intangible Publications of Eugene, OregonEugene, OregonEugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
- Guide to the Opal Whiteley Papers at the University of OregonUniversity of Oregon-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
- Who Was Opal?, a BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme