Onoto Watanna

In 1901, Winnifred Eaton arrived in New York City with literary ambitions, journalism experience, and the manuscript forA 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 Watannareveals the conflicting stories, personal tempests, and remarkable accomplishments of a woman whose career was sensational in every sense.