Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton

by Diana Birchall

Book Overview

In 1901, Winnifred Eaton arrived in New York City with literary ambitions, journalism experience, and the manuscript for A Japanese Nightingale, the novel that would make her famous. Her writing and gift for reinvention would set her apart from other women authors of her time and make her a fascinating early figure in Asian American literature.

Diana Birchall, Eaton's granddaughter, tells the Horatio Alger story of the woman who...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252026071
• ISBN13: 9780252026072
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

This Shared Joy

I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader.

A tour de force of self-invention

Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages.

A jolly, laughing lady

"A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!

Interesting history

In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton.

A great literary biography

The path of literary biography can be a treacheous one . Too much detail and the work can descend into triviality , not enough and the reader is left feeling shortchanged and the book appears insubstantialDiana Birchall succesfully avoids these pitfalls ,and draws the reader into the text delivering an insightful and captivating biography of her "Bad Grandmother".Onoto Watanno / Winifred Eaton was , despite her Japanese pen name , of English/Chinese extraction .She was a Journalist, Screenwriter and author of numerous Japanese romances ,the most famous of which is "The Japanese Nightingale" first published in 1901 (and freshly republished a century later ). It is thought to have sold around 200,000 copies and was later made into a play and a silent movie.Diana Birchall would seem to have inherited her grandmothers literary prowess and this book is a fascinating look into the world of literary pursuits and the life of Asian women in early twentieth century America.