Opal Whiteley

Opal Whiteley
Opal Whiteley in 1919
Born	Opal Irene Whiteley (1897-12-11)December 11, 1897 Colton, Washington, U.S.
Died	February 16, 1992(1992-02-16) (aged 94) London, England
Resting place	Highgate Cemetery
Other names	Françoise Marie de Bourbon-Orléans
Alma mater	University of Oregon
Occupation(s)	Naturalist, diarist
Years active	1916—1948
Notable work	The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart (1920)

Opal Irene Whiteley (December 11, 1897 – February 16, 1992) was an American nature writer and diarist who gained international fame for the publication of her childhood diary, which featured meditations and observations of nature and wildlife. Raised in logging camps in rural Oregon, Whiteley was considered by some a child prodigy, and expressed intense interest in both writing and science in her youth. As an adolescent, she began tutoring and holding lectures on natural history and geology in her community, earning a reputation as an amateur naturalist, as well as becoming a noted speaker for the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour.

While attending the University of Oregon, Whiteley toured the state giving lectures on nature and the environment. In 1918, she self-published The Fairyland Around Us, which combined factual scientific information along with mystical observations of nature. In 1919, she traveled to Boston to seek wider distribution of the book. There, she met Atlantic Monthly publisher Ellery Sedgwick, who instead suggested that she publish her childhood diary, the fragments of which she had kept stored since her youth. Over a series of months, Whiteley meticulously reassembled the diary, which was first released in serial form in the Atlantic Monthly in March 1920. It was published in book format in September 1920 under the title The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart. The publication of the diary earned Whiteley international fame, though it was widely speculated that she had actually written the work as an adult.

Throughout her life, Whiteley claimed to have been the biological daughter of French naturalist Henri, Prince of Orléans, who died during an expedition in India in 1901, after which she was allegedly sent to Oregon and adopted. She frequently went by the name Françoise Marie de Bourbon-Orléans, in reference to her alleged father. The details surrounding her family history have been the subject of wide speculation, with several biographers attributing the claims to delusions stemming from mental illness. Following the publication of her diary, Whiteley relocated to England, where she was eventually committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1948. She spent the remainder of her life in psychiatric care until her death in 1992 at Napsbury Hospital.

In 1986, writer Benjamin Hoff published The Singing Creek where the Willows Grow: The Rediscovered Diary of Opal Whiteley, a biography accompanying her full diary, which won the National Book Award in 1988.^[1] The diary has been republished in several other editions, and Whiteley's life story has been adapted in film and theater productions.