More than a century ago, a young woman who grew up in a logging town near Cottage Grove self-published her first book, part fantastical memoir and part textbook about the flora, fauna and “fairies” she described encountering day-to-day.
“The Fairyland Around Us,” published in 1918, helped propel its author, Opal Whiteley, to a unique literary stardom.
Now, two original copies of the book with Whiteley’s original notes and pasted-in pictures, have been donated by a longtime historian of Whiteley’s life and work to a Cottage Grove immersive history education center named after another one of Whiteley’s books…