rosebee
Bread Van Driver
~Green Queen~
Posts: 128
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Post by rosebee on Mar 30, 2006 1:31:54 GMT 10
I just got this book from the library - it is the diary of a highly intelligent girl written when she was about 6 years old. She studied nature from an early age and wrote about the woods near her home and the creatures that inhabited it. The diary can also be read online at the University of Oregon: intersect.uoregon.edu/opal/Enjoy! |
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Post by braided-rug on Apr 6, 2006 16:35:47 GMT 10
At the moment I am trying to find which year it was set in. Is it before 1920?
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Post by braided-rug on Apr 6, 2006 16:37:40 GMT 10
OK, I have "placed" her now.
"Opal Whiteley was born in Colton, Washington on December 11, 1897. Shortly before her fifth birthday, she and her parents moved from Washington to Wendling, Oregon, a lumber camp in the Willamette Valley. They moved again when Opal was nearly 6, settling next to her grandparent's farm in Walden, near Cottage Grove, OR. By all reports, Opal was a precocious child, entering Walden School at age 5 and passing two grades her first year. She was also a writer and about this time began to keep a diary, a habit she continued much of her life."
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Post by daddys3chicks on Apr 6, 2006 22:26:15 GMT 10
Sounds cool!
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rosebee
Bread Van Driver
~Green Queen~
Posts: 128
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Post by rosebee on Apr 13, 2006 6:23:29 GMT 10
There is a really sad ending to Opal's story. After the diary was first published, it was applauded, but after about a year, critics claimed it was a fraud and said she wrote it at a later age (as they claimed the French words used and descriptive writing could not have been done by a 6 year old). This devastated Opal and as she had schizophrenia and OCD, this progressively worsened and after travels to France, India and England, she ended up in a mental hospital in London, England. A writer called Benjamin Hoff (also wrote "The Tao of Pooh") has written a strong case for her - giving evidence that she did in fact write it when she was 6 - sadly he was unable to tell her that he had done this, as her doctors and staff at the mental hospital wouldn't let him see her....oh, so sad! She also wrote "The Fairyland Around Us" in her later teenage years - which is available online at: www.efn.org/%7Ecaruso/fairyland/ |
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Michelle
Regular Contributor
Posts: 1,181
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Post by Michelle on Apr 13, 2006 9:44:00 GMT 10
This book sounds so good that I'm requesting it at my library (well not *my* library since it's closed due to renovation--I'll pick it up at a nearby library...) Sad ending though  |
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