Opal Stanley Whiteley

Born in Washington in 1897 and raised in rural Oregon, she became known for her intense love of nature and for the diary that was published in 1920 as The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart. The book brought her sudden fame and helped secure her place in American literary history.

Her life was surrounded by controversy as readers argued over the diary’s origins and over the extraordinary personal claims she later made. Even so, the writing itself kept drawing people back, especially for its lyrical attention to animals, plants, and the landscape of the Pacific Northwest.

She spent much of her later life in England and died in London in 1992. Today, she is remembered as a singular diarist and nature writer whose story is as intriguing as her book.