he saga of Opal Whiteley is one of the oddest stories to come out of an odd land. The Pacific Northwest, long known as the home of dreamers, geniuses and eccentrics, gave us a little girl from a logging camp who grew up to become one of the most notorious literary sensations of the century -- on the basis of one book that was out of print within a year. It's a story of innocence and wonder, of a young girl in a young land. It's a story also of loneliness, tragedy and death, of mental illness and the hard life in rural Oregon at the nineteenth century's turn. But more than that, it's a story of faith, of what we believe and perceive to be true. And every time the name of Opal Whiteley surfaces again, more and more people discover what many have quietly felt for some time: Her diary just might be an American classic.