在他作为《og体育平台》杂志的编辑和出版商的漫长职业生涯中，他所遇到的最“奇怪有趣的故事”之一 The Atlantic Monthly埃勒里·塞奇威克(Ellery Sedgwick)说:“对编辑来说，思想开放是最重要的. (但是)有一点比轻信更重要，比怀疑更重要，他的思想应该停留在这一点上，不能再进一步开放了." Ignoring his own advice, 1919年，塞奇威克被一位来自西方的神秘年轻女子迷住了——或者她的出身更有异国情调?

Opal Whiteley arrived at the Boston office of the Atlantic in September 1919 with a book that she had printed, but wanted to have published in a regular fashion, The Fairyland around Us根据塞奇威克的说法，那里是“野兽和花朵、蝴蝶和鸟类的仙境”.惠特利给塞奇威克看了她那本用自己的图画装饰过的书，“上面有一百处特别细心的标记。.而塞奇威克并不认为这是一个有前途的出版项目, og体育平台惠特利本人，有一种“非常年轻、渴望和飘飘的感觉”, like a bird in a thicket."

The Story of Opal

当塞奇威克发现怀特利声称自己是在太平洋西北部至少19个木材营地长大的孤儿时，她对童年周围的环境记得非常详细, 他认为他的下一个问题是很自然的:她记日记了吗, if so, that was what he wanted to publish. 她的回答是，她有过，但它被一个嫉妒的寄养姐姐毁了，撕成了碎片. "Miraculously," she had preserved the shredded pages, 塞奇威克很快就把她和她的帽盒装在了布鲁克林他岳母的家里，帽盒里塞满了成千上万的碎片, just outside of Boston, 在那里，奥珀尔开始了重新整理日记的复杂而艰巨的任务. What arose, months later, 从碎片中发现的像凤凰一样的是欧泊在6到12岁之间写的童话/自然历史.

Working closely with Opal Whiteley, between March and August 1920, 埃勒里·塞奇威克在 Atlantic, and then published an extended version of it the same year as The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart. The publication of Opal’s story was a sensation. 这个故事吸引了很多读者，他们迷恋上了一个异常早熟的六岁女孩的故事，她写了一本充满经典典故和对周围自然世界敏锐观察的日记——一个与动物、树木和森林里的小矮人交谈的“仙女”孩子. 这也引发了大量og体育平台日记真实性的质疑.

The "Real" Opal Whiteley

Even as Opal Stanley Whiteley became an international celebrity, her tenuous connection to reality deteriorated. 她声称，在她很小的时候就失去了“天使父母”，他们是一个觊觎法国王位的奥尔姆萨姆主义者和一个印度公主——不是印第安人，而是印度次大陆一个王族国家统治家族的女儿. 她的故事的真实性引起了公众的极大关注，她声称自己的自然历史著作始于童年早期, Whiteley settled in England. Her "story" ended on a sad note; she spent the last forty years before her death in 1992 in mental hospitals. Sedgwick continued to contribute to her care until his own death in 1960.

The Ellery Sedgwick Papers

马萨诸塞州历史学会收藏的埃勒里·塞奇威克论文包括信件, photographs, and other materials relating to the publication of Whiteley's book, The Story of Opal. Ellery Sedgwick continued to correspond with Whiteley until 1929, 尽管他发现“晨露”已经从她继续保存的日记上消失了. 他记录下了她的生活，并对她的故事持续了很长时间的兴趣, spending years corresponding with people who had known her in Oregon, or met her in the years since. 塞奇威克的文件还包括他后来如何帮助建立一个基金来照顾她的信件. The finding aid to the Ellery Sedgwick Papers is available at our website. 这里展示的奥珀尔·怀特利重建日记的照片来自 Ellery Sedgwick Photographs.