User:Valfontis/Opal Whiteley

Opal Whiteley (December 11, 1897 - February 16, 1992) was an American author, diarist and amateur naturalist. She is best known for writing a childhood diary, published in 1920 by the Atlantic Monthly, about nature and growing up in the logging camps of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900s. She is also known for the notoriety she gained after she claimed that she was in fact a French princess of the House d'Orleans, and the subsequent controversy over the authenticity of her diary. Despite the controversy, her writing has had a resurgence in popularity, especially in the past 20 years, and her work is often cited as an example of the writing of the Pacific Northwest. Her diary, now in the public domain, continues to be adapted and republished in verse, prose and musical forms, and Whiteley has been the subject of several biographies, some of which attempt to solve the mystery of her origin and authorship. She has been called both a fraud and a genius.

Early life

Known to her fans simply as "Opal", Opal Irene Whiteley was born in Colton, Washington, United States in 1897. Whiteley was the oldest of five children, and her father worked as a lumberjack, a profession that necessitated the family's moving often—to various logging communities throughout Washington and Oregon. Whiteley claimed that her family moved 19 times when she was a child, but this was probably an exaggeration. When Whiteley was nearly five, the family moved to Lane County, Oregon. They lived first near Wendling, and about year later moved to Walden, about 3 miles from Cottage Grove. It is here that Whiteley began keeping a diary.

Star, Oregon Christian Endeavor University of Oregon Springfield, Oregon Dorena, Oregon

Authorship

Changed name to Opal Stanley Whiteley.

The Atlantic Monthly Ellery Sedgwick

musicians, artists, mythology and the classics.

New York Times said, "Opal Whiteley is a child Saint Francis in the joyousness that pervades her, and her passionate sympathy with all nature -- animate and inanimate -- is that of the saint." mysticism

Anais Nin [1]

Controversy

forgery Henri of Orleans (1867-1901), grandson of Prince Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans schizophrenia mysticism child abuse Opalites Françoise de Bourbon d'Orléans Cottage Grove Sentinel

Françoise Marie Amélie d'Orléans

Archduchess Clementina, Princess of Salerno Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale

[2]

"I met a (once) best seller,
And I took him by the hand,
And asked, 'How's OPAL WHITELEY
And how does DAISY stand?'
He answered, 'I can only
See sloppiness and sham
In novels from the nursery
And poems from the pram.'" [3]

Rose Macaulay [4]

Travels

Big ol' copy'n'paste from University of London: "Whiteley devoted much of her time to the search for information about what she regarded as her true parentage. Various influential people supported her in this search. In 1923 she used money received from Lord Grey of Falloden, who had become a close friend after reading the Diary, to travel to England. From England she went to France where she visited Françoise Marie Amélie d'Orléans, the mother of Henri d'Orléans. She, in turn, provided the funds for Whiteley to travel to the Udaipur region of India, where Henri d'Orléans died, so that she could find out more about him. From September 1924 Whiteley lived at the guesthouse of the palace of the maharana of Udaipur, under the assumed name of Françoise d'Orlé.

While she was in India Whiteley carried out extensive research into the customs, activities, life and surroundings of the areas in which she traveled. The results of this work can be partially seen in an article, The Story of Unknown India, which was eventually published by The Queen magazine. She also had plans to publish longer works on the subject of India, but these never came to fruition.

Whiteley returned to England in 1925, and in 1926 she traveled to Rome, and then on to Vienna where she spent 2 years living in a convent. In 1927 she returned to England, and for the next 20 years lived variously in London and in Oxford."

Later life

More copy and paste: "She devoted herself to her writings, collecting books relating to her researches and to her Catholic faith. Her writings from this period grow increasingly confused, and many of her many friends and supporters appear to have lost touch with her from the late thirties onwards. In 1948 Whiteley was found to be unable to look after herself, and was taken into the care of Napsbury Hospital in St Albans. She died there in February 1992."

Legacy

Diary a primary source for Pacific Northwest life and logging in the early 1900s.

Beck ^[1]

Hoff ^[2]

Whiteley's works now appear in college syllabi [5], and are referenced on official government websites. The University of Oregon has a collection [6] of her personal papers. Cottage Grove has a park and festival in her honor. Most recent books about her, such as Hoff's, are written in a sympathetic light. Despite being embraced as a legitimate Oregon author, however, controversy continues to surround Whiteley, with some biographers taking a more skeptical view of her and/or her authorship, including Beck.

...choose to ignore the issue of the diary's origin and concentrate on its content, while others, such as Boulton, embrace Whiteley's story of her royal origin.

One-woman play, musical, songs, movie.

Lane County Historical Museum and Society Lane County, Oregon [7]

Opal School Portland Art Museum [8]

According to London University, the Oregon State Library, Cottage Grove Public Library, the Oregon Historical Society, and private collections also hold material relating to Whiteley.

Massachusetts Historical Society [9]

The University of London has a collection of her writings as well. [10]

Collections of writings about women in nature, spiritual journaling, etc.

Literary Oregon: One Hundred Books, 1800-2000

research and academic journals [11]

Opal School
Review of Beck's book from Seattle Weekly
Review of musical Opal from the New York Times (free registration required to access site)

Works

1918 The Fairyland Around Us, (self-published) available on the Internet
1920 The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart (Atlantic Monthly Pub.), available on the Internet
1923 The Flower of Stars (self-published poems), available on the Internet
1929 "The Story of Unknown India", series published in "The Queen", a British women's magazine

Notes

^ Beck, Kathrine Opal: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery, and Madness, Viking, 2003. ISBN 0143034294
^ Hoff, Benjamin The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Mystical Nature Diary of Opal Whiteley, Penguin, 1993. ISBN 0140237208

External links

University of Oregon Opal site
Cottage Grove, Oregon's Opal site
"Official" Opal fan site
Steve McQiddy's Opal site
Oregon Cultural Heritage Society's page on Opal
Review of Whiteley's diary from British magazine Punch, October 6, 1920 (reprinted by Project Gutenberg)

[1] Beck, Kathrine Opal: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery, and Madness, Viking, 2003. ISBN 0143034294

[2] Hoff, Benjamin The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Mystical Nature Diary of Opal Whiteley, Penguin, 1993. ISBN 0140237208

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