Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/678

 fore decided to become an author in a big way. Just as a starter, she decided upon a comprehensive volume, The Fairyland Around Us. It was to be profusely illustrated, to be bound in genuine leather and to sell for $10. She listed a number of volumes to follow.

Opal, though ill from an accident, undertook to finance the publication. All funds from her nature study classes, all that could be secured from admiring friends, went into the production of the book, but were not sufficient. Opal, so lacking in worldly wisdom, then solicited contributions from such persons as An drew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and actually got money from some of them. Still funds were not sufficient for the purchase of color plates. Somewhere, however, Opal secured picture cards of the desired subjects and laboriously pasted these into her books, copies of which are in a number of Oregon libraries. A leaflet advertising the book carried expressions of wondering admiration from such persons as Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, Theodore Roosevelt, Nicholas Murray Butler, Gene Stratton Porter and others of equal prominence. No worldly wise author ever dreamed of launching a first book under such auspices.

Sales were not sufficient to satisfy the ambitions of Opal, so she decided to offer the Atlantic Monthly the privilege of completing publication. A kind woman provided funds for the trip to Boston.

So far as I know no money borrowed has ever been returned.

Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, was not interested in The Fairyland Around Us, but