In 1901, the young Winnifred Eaton arrived in New York City with literary ambitions, journalistic experience, and the manuscript for A Japanese Nightingale, the novel that would sell many thousands of copies and make her famous. Hers is a real Horatio Alger story, with fascinating added dimensions of race and gender. 
While commercially successful women writers were uncommon a century ago, Winnifred Eaton (1875-1954) cultivated a particular persona to set herself apart even within this rare breed. Born to a British father and a Chinese mother, Winnifred decided to capitalize on her exotic appearance while protecting herself from Americans' scorn of Chinese: she "became" Japanese, assuming the pen name Onoto Watanna. While her eldest sister, Edith Maude Eaton (now acknowledged as the mother of Asian American fiction), was writing stories of downtrodden Chinese immigrants under the name Sui Sin Far, Winnifred's Japanese romance novels and stories became all the rage, thrusting her into the glittering world of New York literati. 
Diana Birchall chronicles the sometimes desperate, sometimes canny, always bold life of her "bad grandmother," about whom she knew almost nothing until her own adulthood. Here are the details of an amazing professional career as a journalist, a bestselling novelist, and a Hollywood scriptwriting protégée of Carl Laemmle at Universal Studios. 
Here, too, is the personal saga of a woman who bore "a book and a baby a year" during her troubled first marriage--and who, at the age of fifty-six, wooed back her estranged second husband when her Hollywood career hit the skids during the Great Depression. Having achieved early fame as a Japanese romance writer, Winnifred later jettisoned the kimono and wrote books (including one entitled Cattle) set on the plains of Alberta, where her husband owned a ranch. 
A chameleon? A desperate poseur? A shrewd businesswoman? She was all that, and much more, as Diana Birchall demonstrates. Navigating the shifting boundary between life and art, Birchall probes Winnifred's conflicting stories, personal tempests, and remarkable accomplishments, presenting a woman whose career was "sensational" in every sense.

Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton (Asian American Experience)

Biographies & Memoirs

Birchall, Diana

Arts & Literature

University of Illinois Press

In 1901, the young Winnifred Eaton arrived in New York City with literary ambitions, journalistic experience, and the manuscript for A Japanese Nightingale, the novel that would sell many thousands of copies and make her famous.

History

A happier heroine than Catherine Morland does not exist in England, for she is about to marry her beloved, the handsome, witty Henry Tilney. The night before the wedding, Henry reluctantly tells Catherine and her horrified parents a secret he has dreaded to share - that there is a terrible curse on his family and their home, Northanger Abbey. Henry is a clergyman, educated and rational, and after her year’s engagement Catherine is no longer the silly young girl who delighted in reading “horrid novels”; she has improved in both reading and rationality. This sensible young couple cannot believe curses are real...until a murder at the Abbey triggers events as horrid and Gothic as Jane Austen ever parodied - events that shake the young Tilneys’ certainties, but never their love for each other ...

The Bride of Northanger: A Jane Austen Variation

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

White Soup Press

Beginning twenty-five years after Darcy and Elizabeth's wedding, their life together has been wonderful and their marriage is still thriving. Their grown children bring them great delight, along with some trepidation, Mrs. Darcy's nieces come for a visit, and a theatrical scandal threatens to embroil them all. The Victorian age is dawning, and Pemberley's new generation is coming into their own."The very title makes you want to read it right away! Fascinating, ans such wonderful use of language." --Joan Austen-Leigh"Birchall's witty, elegant visit to the middle-aged Darcys is a delight." --Professor Janet Todd, University of Glasgow""A refreshing and entertaining look at the Darcys some years after Pride and Prejudice from a most accomplished author. --Jenny Scott, author of After Jane

Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

United States

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Beginning twenty-five years after Darcy and Elizabeth's wedding, their life together has been wonderful and their marriage is still thriving. Their grown children bring them great delight, along with some trepidation, Mrs. Darcy's nieces come for a visit, and a theatrical scandal threatens to embroil them all. The Victorian age is dawning, and Pemberley's new generation is coming into their own.
"The very title makes you want to read it right away! Fascinating, and such wonderful use of language." ―Joan Austen-Leigh "Birchall's witty, elegant visit to the middle-aged Darcys is a delight." ―Professor Janet Todd, University of Glasgow "A refreshing and entertaining look at the Darcys some years after Pride and Prejudice from a most accomplished author. ―Jenny Scott, author of After Jane

Humor & Satire

Sourcebooks Landmark

Diana Birchall, who successfully took Mrs. Elton?s side in her In Defense of Mrs. Elton, here reprinted, tells more of her story: The Courtship of Mrs. Elton and the adventurous Mrs. Elton in America finish The Compleat Mrs. Elton trilogy.

Mrs. Elton in America

Romance

Historical

Beginning twenty-five years after Darcy and Elizabeth's wedding, their life together has been wonderful and their marriage is still thriving. Their grown children bring them great delight, along with some trepidation, Mrs. Darcy's nieces come for a visit, and a theatrical scandal threatens to embroil them all. The Victorian age is dawning, and Pemberley's new generation is coming into their own. "The very title makes you want to read it right away! Fascinating, ans such wonderful use of language." --Joan Austen-Leigh "Birchall's witty, elegant visit to the middle-aged Darcys is a delight." --Professor Janet Todd, University of Glasgow ""A refreshing and entertaining look at the Darcys some years after Pride and Prejudice from a most accomplished author. --Jenny Scott, author of After Jane

Mrs Darcy's Dilemma: A sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Contemporary

Egerton House Pub

In this sequel to Jane Austen's Emma Mrs. Elton goes farther! Crossing the Atlantic Ocean with her caro sposo and children, she enjoys high comedic adventures in Boston and New York society, makes a sobering visit to a Southern slave state, and sojourns among the Comanche Indians. It's no wonder her trip to America is all the talk of Highbury... Diana Birchall, who successfully took Mrs. Elton's side in her "In Defense of Mrs. Elton," here reprinted, tells more of her story: "The Courtship of Mrs. Elton" and the adventurous "Mrs. Elton in America" finish "The Compleat Mrs. Elton" trilogy.

Mrs Elton In America: The Compleat Mrs Elton

Literary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Birchall, Diana. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Birchall, Diana

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Birchall, Diana. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton (Asian American Experience)

Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton (Asian American Experience)

The Bride of Northanger: A Jane Austen Variation

Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Mrs. Elton in America

Mrs Darcy's Dilemma: A sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Mrs Elton In America: The Compleat Mrs Elton