Whiteley attempted to self-publish a textbook in 1920, titled "The Fairyland Around Us", which was developed from her popular talks on the natural world. Unfortunately, she ran out of money for "Fairyland" and was only able to send a limited number of copies to subscribers. She then went in search of a commercial publisher, without success. However, in a meeting with Ellery Sedgwick, publisher of the "Atlantic Monthly", she arranged to publish her childhood diary instead, which, if authentic, would have been written c. 1903-4.