Here’s a link to a beautiful website about Opal Whitely:
http://www.efn.org/~caruso/fairyland/
If you click on the right links, it will take you to her diary, which she wrote when she was seven. I absolutely love it. Opal became famous as a naturalist in her 20’s and then fell into “mental illness” and her diaries were questioned as to their authenticity. She wrote a book called “The Fairyland Around Us” which is very rare now.
When my daughter was little I found a copy in the children’s book section of a used book store here in Eugene. I thought it was going to be about fairies, and when I leafed through it I saw that it wasn’t; it was about nature. It had a price of $5.95 and I decided it was too expensive, so I put it back on the shelf! I was looking for cheap kid’s books for Heather at the time.
Later I found out who Opal Whitely was, read her diary, and realized that it was her book I had held in my hand! I think she was born around the same time as my grandfather (1901), so the descriptions of her growing up in the woods around Cottage Grove remind me in some ways of Grandpa’s youth in the logging camps of Washington State.
Opal died in a mental hospital in England, and one of my book group members got to meet her. Her mother had done extensive history and biographical work about her, and had corresponded with her. So Elizabeth traveled with her mother to England and was able to meet with Opal before she died.
http://www.efn.org/~caruso/fairyland/
If you click on the right links, it will take you to her diary, which she wrote when she was seven. I absolutely love it. Opal became famous as a naturalist in her 20’s and then fell into “mental illness” and her diaries were questioned as to their authenticity. She wrote a book called “The Fairyland Around Us” which is very rare now.
When my daughter was little I found a copy in the children’s book section of a used book store here in Eugene. I thought it was going to be about fairies, and when I leafed through it I saw that it wasn’t; it was about nature. It had a price of $5.95 and I decided it was too expensive, so I put it back on the shelf! I was looking for cheap kid’s books for Heather at the time.
Later I found out who Opal Whitely was, read her diary, and realized that it was her book I had held in my hand! I think she was born around the same time as my grandfather (1901), so the descriptions of her growing up in the woods around Cottage Grove remind me in some ways of Grandpa’s youth in the logging camps of Washington State.
Opal died in a mental hospital in England, and one of my book group members got to meet her. Her mother had done extensive history and biographical work about her, and had corresponded with her. So Elizabeth traveled with her mother to England and was able to meet with Opal before she died.
Posts
1 comment:
I can't believe you had this in your hand! And yet I have let treasures slip away in regrettably practical moments - a Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam illustrated by Edmund Dulac, for example.
Post a Comment