Reeve, Winnifred Eaton, 1879-1954

Winnifred Eaton was born in Montreal in 1875, the eighth of fourteen children born to Edward and Achuen "Grace" Eaton. She later claimed 1879 as her birth year. After her marriage to journalist Bertrand Babcock in 1901, she began to publish under the Japanese pen-name of Onoto Watanna. While she is believed to be the be the first novelist of Chinese descent to publish in North America, yet chose to present as half-Japanese for most of her career. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Eaton worked as a screen and scenario writer, first in New York and then in Hollywood. Eaton’s writing career included numerous short stories and some non-fiction that was often published under her real names. Winnifred Eaton Babcock Reeve died in 1954.

Sources:

Winnifred Eaton Archive. "Biographical Timeline". Accessed December 29, 2021. https://www.winnifredeatonarchive.org/timeline.html

Asian Heritage in Canada. "Winnifred Eaton (Onoto Watanna)". Accessed December 29, 2021. https://library.ryerson.ca/asianheritage/authors/eaton/