The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Rediscovered Diary of Opal Whiteley

In 1920, when the Atlantic Monthly Press published the childhood diary of Opal Whiteley (The Story of Opal, it became an immediate bestseller, acclaimed for the extraordinary expression of a child's view of nature, life and family in her native Oregon. The view is joyfully pantheistic and anthropomorphic: the fields are a fairy land; the woods harbor a fir tree named Byron; a pig answers to Peter Paul Rubens; a young wife is ""Dear Love''; ``angel parents'' take care of Opal, who purports to be adopted. Childish spellings mingle with sophisticated foreign phrases. A year later the diary was declared a hoax, a fantasy, by the press, which deemed the book an adult-child collaboration. Opal, buffeted by ill fortune, retreated further into a fantasy world. Diagnosed a schizophrenic, she is today in a hospital outside London, where Hoff, having rediscovered the diary, attempted unsuccessfully to interview her. Interjecting his frustration, he nevertheless succeeds in bringing about an understanding, 65 years later, of a tragically gifted child. Hoff is the author of The Tao of Pooh. (September 26)