Tama

Onoto Watanna (aka Mrs. Winifred Eaton Babcock) was born in Canada. Her father was an Englishman in the consular service and her mother Japanese. She became the first woman of Asian descent to publish a novel in English in the United States. She was widely read during the early 1900s and made more than one hundred contributions to major periodicals such as Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly Harpers Monthly Century Magazine Red Book and the Ladies Home Journal. Tama was penned in 1910 by Onoto and is an example of the early 20th century romantic novel in the Oriental style obsessed over by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has aged well as a historical example of the time. It was written in a western style but the author speaks so accurately of internal affairs of the 19th century Japan that many found themselves left in wonder.