Talk:Opal Whiteley

Her middle name?

Non-Americans might be confused because some sources give her name as Opal Irene Whiteley and some name her as Opal Stanley Whiteley, (presumably from her mother's maiden name?) Maybe an explanation would help readers who aren't used to the American convention of using a mother's maiden name as a middle name.

Scan or reconstruction?

I'm thinking it's better to have a scan of the actual book, instead of a reconstruction. User:Davidacaruso, is there a reason you think the web site version is preferable over the book itself? Could anyone else lend their thoughts on the matter? Thanks! :) Goldenshimmer (talk) 21:22, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I've seen Fairyland on microfilm and once read out several chapters on tape and transcribed them just to have them personally. Possibly existing copies of the actual book are too fragile to be scanned? Also, there's a copyright problem with the illustrations. She cut pictures out of other books and magazines -- including ones that were in copyright -- and tipped them in. If any of those pictures are still in copyright (which I am doubtful, but you still have to check) whoever wanted to make a reprint edition would have to find hundreds of non-copyright pictures of the birds and animals she talks about (not too hard, but still, a bit laborious). It is possible this might be one of the things holding the book up from having a full hardcover/paperback reprint edition and/or a Kindle edition -- besides the fact that it would probably sell primarily just to Whiteley fans, and likely just a handful of them if it were as expensive as I think it would have to be. They couldn't break even, let alone turn a profit. This is my guess and I'm very interested in what Mr. Caruso and anyone else thinks.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, there is a full color edition on archive.org; The Fairyland Around Us at Archive.Org

--Bluejay Young (talk) 00:22, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

@Bluejay Young, the book was published it 1918; all illustrations in that edition would thus be in the public domain now, regardless of whether they were then. I am quite aware of that scan (I added it to the external links section in October 2014 replacing an artistic interpretation of it (not a scan) at @Davidacaruso's personal Web site; Davidacaruso re-added their version in June 2015 and removed the link to the Internet Archive scan; I undid that edit and created this talk page section in September 2015, although probably I should have just re-added the scan link without removing Davidacaruso's site, or brought it up here first.) Goldenshimmer (talk) 20:59, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I don't see why the page on Opal can't have both the link to Mr. Caruso's edition and the archive.org scan. Possibly the Caruso version might be easier for some browsers to handle? Sorry I misread your message, I didn't even know about the archive.org edition until I came to write my reply; I was thinking the book ought to be reprinted as a regular book. Sorry for the confusion. --Bluejay Young (talk) 22:05, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Sure, if you want to re-add @Davidacaruso's version, feel free. (I'd removed it since WP:EL#ADV states: "you should avoid linking to a site that you own, maintain, or represent—even if Wikipedia guidelines seem to imply that it may otherwise be linked".) Goldenshimmer (talk) 19:40, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

Under Parentage

In the quote from G. Evert Baker, 'I went to the Whiteley home and tailed with Mrs. Whiteley for some time', should 'tailed' be 'talked'? Snugglepuss (talk) 08:56, 26 April 2024 (UTC)