The Story of Opal

Opal Irene Whiteley was born on December 11, 1897 in Wendling, Oregon. When she was five her family moved to Walden, a logging community in the southern end of the Willamette Valley near Cottage Grove, Oregon. When the family settled in Walden, Opal began to write a diary which she hid in an old log in the forest. She got scraps of paper to write on from her friend, Sadie McKibben, and colored pencils to write with from the fairies (really a friend she called The Man Who Wears Gray Neckties and is Kind to Mice).

In her diary, she described her home, her friends (human, animal and plant), her school, and the mill town. She started reading at the age of three, started school at five and skipped two grades in the first year. Her father was known to complain that she was “always writing.” Opal didn’t spell very well so she had her own phonetic way of making words. She wrote to the very edge of the paper, on the back and along the sides.

She was curious and observant—her desire to learn was vast—she read everything she could find, including Greek Mythology at school and the “Lays of Ancient Rome” lent to her by a neighbor. It is from these various books—including a Bible and an almanac—that she found the names for all of her animal and tree friends including Lars Porsena of Clusium—a crow, Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus—a velvety wood rat, and Brave Horatius—a lovely dog. These three were her constant companions along with the barnyard creatures, Peter Paul Rubens—a pig, William Shakespeare—a horse, and Lucian Horace Ovid Virgil—a toad she carried in her apron pocket when she went to school.

Opal’s life was not easy. She took care of younger siblings, helped her mother in the house, went to school—it was a hardscrabble life but Opal lived it with joy and a song in her heart.

Along with the natural world, Opal loved religion. When she was eight or nine, neighbors recall Opal sitting quietly with her sister Pearl in a pew of the Cottage Grove Christian Church. When called upon, Opal would walk solemnly up the aisle to the front of the church and quote scripture, much to everyone’s surprise. She knew the King James Bible well, and its syntax and rhythms are evident in her diary. Opal’s dream was to grow up and write books about nature for children. This dream became a driving force in her life and eventually led to the publication of the diary.

Opal’s parents were Charles Edward Whiteley and Mary Elizabeth Scott Whiteley. By all accounts, Opal’s mother was kind. She read poetry and fairy tales to her children. She was a loving person and encouraged Opal’s love of reading, drama, music and history. But Opal was not close to her mother as a child. Later, when she was a grown up they became closer. She idealized her father, but was afraid of him, too. In the diary she talks about Angel Mother and Angel Father—two beings who were her real parents who had been killed. Opal believed she was adopted and that her real name was Francoise. Why Opal made up this story is anyone’s guess, but she let go of the idea of adoption as she approached her teens.

When Opal was thirteen, her sister Faye tore up her diary into small pieces. Opal rescued it, but it was kept in a hat box for seven years. When she was seventeen she was a member of an organization called Christian Endeavor. She went to schools and old folks homes and talked about nature and living in the natural world. One day a leader of the organization came upon Opal and the work she was doing and invited Opal to lecture in Eugene at the Christian Endeavor’s convention. She did and was a huge hit. In 1916 she enrolled in the University of Oregon and took twelve credits. But, even as she was learning and enjoying school, her relationship with her family became strained—especially with her mother. When her mother died, Opal did not stay with her that day, but went to school. After her mother’s death, Opal regretted her attitude and would often call out to her mother in her sleep. But, she became more and more estranged from her family. Her work at school slackened and eventually Opal began doing her own work. She established a lecture circuit where she presented many different subjects having to do with the natural world.As a result, she took her notes and lectures and put them together in a book she called “The Fairyland Around Us.” In it she recorded observations of animals and plants, her classes, her notebooks and the later, undamaged part of her diary. The book was very popular. Over the next few years, Opal was compared with Thoreau and the book to Walden. She was even invited to Hollywood but was unsuccessful in the movies.

Finally, one day, she walked into the office of the Atlantic Monthly. They asked her what she had to publish and she told them about her diary which had been torn to pieces. The editor asked her where the pieces were and she presented them to him in a hat box. She spent the next nine months working diligently and carefully on putting the diary back together. At last, it was complete and was published as “The Story of Opal:The Journal of an Understanding Heart.” At first the book was well received. But it wasn’t long before the people in Cottage Grove and her family started questioning the events recorded in the diary. The press picked up this conflict and soon “The Story of Opal” was being called a hoax. No young child could write that convincingly, people said. Opal was devastated. The press was enormously cruel to her and to her family. Her brothers and sisters changed their names and moved away. The scandal was immense. It broke Opal completely.

After a series of journeys to France, England and India, Opal settled in London. Because of symptoms of paranoia and extreme anxiety, Opal was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her adult life was difficult—tragic. She eventually found herself destitute and starving in a basement apartment in Hampstead Heath. Surrounding her were wooden crates full of books—an estimated 15,000 of them. Opal was taken to a mental hospital and friends (the editor of Atlantic Monthly for example) started a small fund in England to take care of her as did some friends in America. Her books were put in storage, but in 1977 they were sold and the money was given to Opal for her care. The original diary is gone. Opal had it with her in Boston when she worked on putting the pieces back together but it disappeared when the book was published.

Opal ended her life in a nursing home in Napsbury, England. When I wrote this play, I called Opal from my home in California. I was told that Opal, then 89 almost 90 didn’t speak any more. But, her diary speaks for her. It is a meditation on childhood, on nature and on love. Of course Opal wrote the diary as a child. She was a genius—a prodigy. And thank goodness she took all of those little pieces and put them back together. We celebrate Opal every time this play is done. Opal was a person with an “understanding heart.” We will never forget her.

Further Reading: The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Rediscovered Diary of Opal Whiteley presented by Benjamin Hoff.