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Stanley Edmonson
English/History

Elizabeth Reis, Mentor

Opal Whiteley: A Case Study in Local Censorship

In the 1920s a young girl named Opal Whiteley published a diary which she purportedly wrote as a child. This diary recalled abuse, alcoholism, adoption, and even incest within her family. The diary was first published in the Atlantic Monthly and later in book form. The book garnered great success. But, almost as soon as the book was published, local critics charged Whiteley with fraud and misrepresentation. Local newspapers and magazine articles, and the books written about Whiteley during this time, point to the fact that much of the repression and censorship which Whiteley faced were rooted in gender and racial biases. These patterns of local repression and censorship reflected the national trends in the United States at the turn of the century. While some contemporary scholarship had been done on Whiteley, none has addressed the root cause of the censorship and repression she faced, this paper addresses that gap.