Opal: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery, and Madness

In 1920 Americans were captivated by the childhood diary of Opal Whiteley, an enigmatic young woman from a small town in the Northwest. The diary, which chronicled adventures in the forests of Oregon at the age of seven, was hailed as a revelatory portrait of a child’s relationship to God and the natural world. It became an overnight publishing sensation and Opal, then twenty-two, became a celebrity. Yet the diary—and Opal—was soon dismissed as a hoax. Today the diary has been rediscovered and continues to touch the hearts of many devotees, but Opal’s true identity is hotly contested: Was she a New Age prophet and environmentalist, mad genius, long- lost princess, or flamboyant fraud?

Delightfully entertaining and engrossing, Opal tells the story of a beguiling personality and sheds new light on one of the most intriguing literary mysteries of the twentieth century.