Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is the diary of a six-year-old girl named Opal Whiteley, who grew up in Oregon logging camps in the early 1900s. She loved nature and her writing style was inimitably beautiful.

Her diary was published first in 1920, but became the centre of a large controversy and was dismissed as a fraud. Mr Hoff discovered a copy of this book by chance in 1983, and was so fascinated by it that he spent years researching the life of Opal to determine the true story.

It most certainly is no fraud. Mr Hoff opens this book with a very well-researched, unbiased biography of Opal which proves beyond doubt that this really was her diary written at age six. He follows this up with the diary (or what exists of it), and ends with the tale of his story of trying to meet Opal personally.

The tone of the book, by the time you have read from beginning to end, is one of tragedy. However, like the lonely, brave tones of a bird chirping through the twilight its farewell to the setting sun and a day that shall never return, beauty sometimes IS bitter sweet; but the quiet love, the charming way Opal describes her surroundings, her pets, the people she meets, and the voices of the natural world which Opal understood so well balance out the sadness and make this book well worth reading and adding to your personal collection.

Opal's story is at once a sad commentary on the way one small hint of a rumour can snowball into the destruction of a person's life and a celebration of childhood and nature. It is mostly the latter.

This is a brief passage from the diary part of the book, to give you a sample of its simplistic yet profound loveliness.

"And all the times I was picking up potatoes, I did have conversations with them. Too, I did have thinks of all their growing days here in the ground, and all the things they did hear. Earth-voices are glad voices, and earth-songs come up from the ground through the plants; and in their flowering, and in the days before these days are come, they do tell the earth-songs to the wind. And the wind in her goings does whisper them to folks to print for other folks, so other folks do have knowing of earth's songs. When I grow up, I am going to write for children - and grownups that haven't grown up too much - all the earth-songs I now do hear."

Doesn't that just sound like such music?

Please read this book. Take it to heart.

And thank you, Mr Hoff, for your loving tribute to an amazing woman, and for the hard work you did to bring this masterpiece back into the public eye.

Do you believe nature has a voice? That when you walk a quiet stretch of beach you can almost HEAR the ocean whispering to you? Opal Whitely was an extraordinary human being, both misunderstood and respected, though unfortunately not as much until after her death. This book was required reading for a college Orality in Literature course and it set the stage for the entire semester. It is so thought-provoking, sensitive, forthright and creative that you will not be able to put it down without somehow being changed in the way you "see" "feel" and "hear" the world around you. There is so much to be learned. Let Opal teach you.

16 year old Opal Whiteley was one of the greatest botanists in America in the early twentieth century, until a tragic vendetta ruined her good name, and she was sent off to be institutionalized in England. She would have died completely unknown were it not for the dedication and fanaticism of famed author Benjamin Hoff, (Tao of Pooh; Te of Piglet) who made it his mission to carefully research all the facts behind the vengeful campaign of lies which led to the discrediting of a true American genius.

Both a vital piece of history, and a great read, this book is a sort of naturalist detective novel that leads, through painstaking investigation, to the restoration of a great woman's reputation. It is interspersed with the actual notes from her famed childhood diary, cause of so much publicity and heartache, and is partly responsible for renewed efforts to create a museum around the crumbling Opal Whiteley archives in the library of her tiny hometown in Oregon. Definitely a must read.

I couldn't remember the name of this book! I'm so glad I found it. I loaned it to a friend a couple of years ago now and never got it returned, inspite of my constant reminders! This book was so amazing when I read, it transformed me to another time and place. I vowed to read it every few Springs to remind me of the wonders of nature and the spirit of discovery and observation in children. I hope to read this book with my child some day, to share the magic.

I was alternately enthralled and appalled by Opal Whiteley's life story. Her "explores" into the beauty and hardships of nature, as she so intelligently and sensitively recorded them at age 6, helped reconnect me to the magic of childhood. But nearly every diary entry also revealed the cruelty and coarseness forced upon this gifted child by her immediate family. My heart broke, time and again, over the complete lack of understanding she received--throughout the years. Hers was a life of promise laid waste by the dull and perhaps malicious minds that surrounded her at nearly every stage.

I hope that Hoff's second-hand information was accurate, and that before she died, Opal indeed knew about his book and was pleased

We all owe Benjamin Hoff a debt of gratitude for discovering this book. If he didn't work so hard to recapture these words in print a very unique voice would have been lost to us... Also this book acts as a beautiful addition to his books on Taoism... For, in a way, here is Taoism in action. For we see the beauty of nature and the world through the eyes of this child. And isn't that something all Taoists strive for?

I highly recommend this book. I hope you purchase it and keep the memory and the stories of Opal alive.

This beautiful, lyrical journal, written by a 6-year-old prodigy from the backwoods of Oregon, will have you gazing in wonder at fire hydrants and listening to the song of the subways. Opal has a direct relationship with every tree, horse, rat and blade of grass in her backyard, and is able to see every living thing as a gift from God.

The story behind the publication of the journal is a sad one, but the diary itself is timeless and transcendent. Opal may have died in obscurity but her lovely spirit lives on in her work.

From the time I opened the covers, I was altered by this book and the world around me has transformed as well. I think that Opal Whitely was the best writer that ever held a pencil in her fist while a doormouse slept in her petticoat. I am full of admiration for her insight and love of nature and I'm sometimes just as baffled by humans. A great book by a great teacher.

The controversy over Opal Whitley's authorship of this remarkable journal is a bogus one.
The diary was first published as "The Story of Opal" in 1920 and became an instant success, but just as quickly declined in reputation as suspicions began to circulate about its authenticity as a genuine diary of a seven year old girl.
Whether she wrote it as a child or as an adult doesn't matter. In either case, it is a monumental achievement. If it was written by a little girl, she was an astounding little girl, having an understanding and a breadth of knowledge that would have been advanced for a person three times her age. If it was written by an adult, it was one with an unbelievable memory, not only of the events of her childhood, but also her feelings in response to those events and their environs. She was able to place herself fully into the persona of a seven year old girl, with a child's understanding of her life and the lives of her friends, family and acquaintances, all without a hint of an adult's judgment. There are no winks or nods or any other indication that the perspective is anything but a child's. There are professional writers who would have difficulty placing themselves so convincingly into the mind of a child, how much more difficult for a young woman with little or no background in writing to do so!
Benjamin Hoff, in his insightful biography convincingly argues for the authenticity of the diary. His story of Opal is heart breaking. It is little wonder that the child withdrew into her own world and filled it with forest friends, since her own life was so dismal, with parents who punished her severely for every infraction and showed her very little in the way of affection.
True, a little girl with Opal's gifts would be extremely hard to live with. Her way of helping her mother often caused a great deal of consternation, as when she dyed everything in the house blue because she knew her mother liked the color, or when she threw the butter paddle into the river because she'd heard her mother exclaim, "That's the last time I want to see that paddle!"
Yet, the portrait that emerges of Opal is one of a gifted little girl who was not only discouraged from her fanciful imaginings, but was punished for them.
Opal names and gives personalities to all creatures in her world: The family's pig is called Peter Paul Rubens, a crow is Lars Porsena of Clusium and a dray horse is William Shakespeare. They are her dearest friends and companions in an intensely spiritual life in which forests are cathedrals.
There are also the humans, Dear Love, The man who wears gray neckties and is kind to mice, and Sadie McKibben. Her parents she divides into two halves, The Mama is the one who punishes her and is cross, "Angel Mother is the one who is loving and kind. Her father is also known alternately as The Papa and Angel Father. In Opal's fanciful mind, the Angel parents are dead and she's an orphan given to the couple she now lives with, but her real parents left her books from which she gets the history and the names she then transfers to her animal friends.
That Opal is a disturbed little girl is a certainty, although there is some debate about what exactly her mental illness is. There is no doubt whatever about her contribution as a gifted naturalist. As a young woman she was often asked to lecture on the subject and was admitted to the University of Oregon without the required education and on full scholarship because of all she had learned in a lifetime of observation.
Only recently has Opal's work been republished to positive reviews, and the government of Oregon had finally given her the recognition she deserves.
The language of the diary is a little difficult to get used to. The child Opal uses a syntax that seems to have come from a foreign language.
"When I was come to the house we do live in, I had thinks to go to visit Dear Love. When I did give my dress a smooth-out, I did have feels of that tear I got in it yesterday on top of the barn door, when I did go to talk with Michael Angelo Sanzio Raphael." (Opal's name for a large fir tree. - jm)

However, if you can tune your ear to the wording, a great joyful experience awaits. This is the magical world as seen through the eyes of a talented and visionary little girl.

To say this is my favorite book of all time, my most treasured, the one I would grab in a housefire - that is just a beginning. Opal brings us into the innocence and wonder of childhood in a way that inspires us to reclaim that part of ourselves. There are haunting scenes that pull you to love her and precious glimpses into her imaginings that wake you up to the magic in life. As she trots around with critters in her pockets and on her shoulders with names inspired by the great writers, christens baby chicks in the barn and finds notes and ribbons left by the fairies in the woods, Opal delights us and opens our hearts to a more tender place.