Photos
1a.
Detail from 1917 poster
promoting Opal's nature lectures.
4a.
Opal and her younger sister,
Pearl.
8a.
Opal in 1918.
The photo was staged to help her launch a movie career.
12a.
"The Author and the fragments of her diary,"
from the original 1920 edition of
The Story of Opal.
Text
1.
The saga of Opal Whiteley
is one of the oddest stories to come out of an odd land.
2.
The Story of Opal
was first published in 1920...
3.
But she keeps coming back,
and interest in her now is stronger than ever.
4.
Exactly what
she might have made up is still not certain...
5.
The oldest
of five children...
6.
That evergreen tree
Opal climbed might have been Michael Angelo Sanzio Raphael...
7.
Having joined
the local chapter of the Junior Christian Endeavor...
8.
In the diary,
Opal is often the source of adults' consternation...
9.
In 1915,
Opal -- newly elected as state superintendent of the Junior Christian Endeavor...
10.
Opal entered the UO
in the fall of 1916.
11.
Already interested
in the mind's power to influence actual events...
12.
Here is where some believe
she actually wrote the diary.
13.
Her attempts
to get
Fairyland
published led Opal to Boston...
14.
The book
certainly was unlike any other.
15.
After her true parents died,
her guardians had taken her on a long trip...
16.
While many agree
that this part of the story is a tragedy...
17.
Until 1948,
when she resurfaced in London...
18.
Interestingly enough,
the Napsbury Hospital staff...