Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton [Paperback]

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 became Onoto Watanna. Born to a British father and a Chinese mother, Winnifred capitalized on her exotic appearance—and protected herself from Americans' scorn of the Chinese—by "becoming" Japanese. Her popular Japanese-themed romance novels thrust her into the glittering world of New York's literati. From there she leapt to Hollywood to become a scriptwriting protégée of Carl Laemmle at Universal Studios. Yet her boldness and talent masked a sometimes-desperate personal life that included a troubled first marriage and the sudden end of her Hollywood career. 

A compelling saga of the shifting boundary between life and art, Onoto Watanna reveals the conflicting stories, personal tempests, and remarkable accomplishments of a woman whose career was sensational in every sense.

"Birchall, a novelist and Warner Brothers story analyst, reports the life of her 'bad grandmother' in straightforward and heartfelt prose, offering both a fascinating life story and a social history of fin de siecle literary life in New York."--Globe and Mail"A scholarly work as well as a delight to read."--Ginny Lee, Multicultural Review"Birchall's engaging biography of her grandmother will appeal to a broad range of readers. . . . Birchall was a novice biographer when she began work on this study; but in the process of writing it she transformed herself into a scholar."--Choice"Birchall porl³¨