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Lafcadio Hearn, aka Koizumi Yakumo.
Lafcadio Hearn, aka Koizumi Yakumo.

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (June 27, 1850 - September 26, 1904), also known as Koizumi Yakumo (小泉八雲?) after gaining Japanese citizenship, was an author, best known for his books about Japan. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 1904 ( MCMIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting on For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. He is especially well-known for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to "Kwaidan" redirects here For the book by Lafcadio Hearn see Kwaidan Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Kwaidan Stories and Studies of Strange Things (often abbreviated to Kwaidan) is a book by Lafcadio Hearn that features several Japanese

Contents

Biography

Early life

Hearn was born in Lefkada (the origin of his middle name), one of the Greek Ionian Islands. Lefkada, or Leucas (Λευκάδα le̞fˈkaða Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Λευκάς Leukás; Santa Maura is a Greek Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία This article is about the group of islands west of Greece For the ancient region in western Anatolia see Ionia. He was the son of Surgeon-major Charles Hearn (of King's County, Ireland) and Rosa Antonia Kassimati [1], who had been born on Kythera, another of the Ionian Islands. County Offaly (Contae Uíbh Fhailí is a County in Leinster, Ireland, bordered by seven other counties Galway, Roscommon, Westmeath Kythira (Κύθηρα Cythera, Kythera, Cerigo is an Island of Greece, historically part of the Ionian Islands. His father was stationed in Lefkada during the British occupation of the islands. Lafcadio was initially baptized Patricio Lefcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn in the Greek Orthodox Church. The Church of Greece ( Greek: Ekklēsía tês Helládos, ekliˈsia tis eˈlaðos is one of the fifteen Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches It is not clear that Hearn's parents were ever legally married, and the Irish Protestant relatives on his father's side considered him to have been born out of wedlock. (This may, however, have been because they did not recognize the legitimacy of the Greek Orthodox Church to conduct a marriage ceremony for a Protestant. )[2]


Hearn moved to Dublin, Ireland, at the age of two. Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Artistic and rather bohemian tastes were in his blood. The term bohemian, of French origin was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished Artists His father's brother Richard was at one time a well-known member of the Barbizon set of artists, though he made no mark as a painter due to his lack of energy. Barbizon is a village and a commune of the Seine-et-Marne département, in France, located near the Fontainebleau Forest Young Hearn had a rather casual education, but in 1865 was at Ushaw Roman Catholic College, Durham. Ushaw College ( St Cuthbert's College Ushaw) is a Roman Catholic Seminary, founded at Douai as the English College Douai Durham (ˈdʌrəm in RP, locally ˈdʏrəm is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham, England He was injured in a playground accident in his teens, causing loss of vision in his left eye.

Emigration

The religious faith in which he was brought up was, however, soon lost, and at 19 he was sent to live in the United States of America, where he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For a time, he lived in utter poverty, which may have contributed to his later paranoia and distrust of those around him. Paranoia is a disturbed thought process characterized by excessive Anxiety or Fear, often to the point of Irrationality and Delusion. He eventually found a friend in the English printer and communalist Henry Watkin. Henry Watkin ( March 6, 1824 - November 21, 1910) was an expatriate English printer and Cooperative Socialist With Watkin's help, Hearn picked up a living in the lower grades of newspaper work.

Through the strength of his talent as a writer, Hearn quickly advanced through the newspaper ranks and became a reporter for the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, working for the paper from 1872 to 1875. The Cincinnati Enquirer a daily morning Newspaper, is the highest-circulation print publication in Greater Cincinnati ( Ohio) and Northern Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Year 1875 ( MDCCCLXXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common With creative freedom in one of Cincinnati's largest circulating newspapers, he developed a reputation as the paper's premier sensational journalist, as well as the author of sensitive, dark, and fascinating accounts of Cincinnati's disadvantaged. He continued to occupy himself with journalism and with out-of-the-way observation and reading, and meanwhile his erratic, romantic, and rather morbid idiosyncrasies developed.

While in Cincinnati, he married Alethea ("Mattie") Foley, a black woman, an illegal act at the time. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa When the scandal was discovered and publicized, he was fired from the Enquirer and went to work for the rival Cincinnati Commercial.

In 1874 Hearn and the young Henry Farny, later a renowned painter of the American West, wrote, illustrated, and published a weekly journal of art, literature, and satire they titled Ye Giglampz that ran for nine issues. The Cincinnati Public Library reprinted a facsimile of all nine issues in 1983.


New Orleans

In the autumn of 1877, Hearn left Cincinnati for New Orleans, Louisiana, where he initially wrote dispatches on his discoveries in the "Gateway to the Tropics" for the Cincinnati Commercial. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana He lived in New Orleans for nearly a decade, writing first for the Daily City Item and later for the Times Democrat. The vast number of his writings about New Orleans and its environs, many of which have not been collected, include the city's Creole population and distinctive cuisine, the French Opera, and Vodou. This article is about an ethnic culture in Louisiana USA For uses of the term "Creole" in other countries and cultures see Creole (disambiguation. vodoo, vodun, or vodoun may refer to any of West African vodun, a west African religion Haitian vodou, mostly derived His writings for national publications, such as Harper's Weekly and Scribner's Magazine, helped mold the popular image of New Orleans as a colorful place with a distinct culture more akin to Europe and the Caribbean than to the rest of North America. Harper's Weekly ( A Journal of Civilization) was an American political Magazine based in New York City. Scribner's Magazine was first published in January 1887, also by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, which spent $500000 to compete His best-known Louisiana works are Gombo Zhèbes, Little Dictionary of Creole Proverbs in Six Dialects (1885); La Cuisine Créole (1885), a collection of culinary recipes from leading chefs and noted Creole housewives who helped make New Orleans famous for its cuisine; and Chita: A Memory of Last Island, a novella based on the hurricane of 1856 first published in Harper's Monthly in 1888. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America Year 1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Last Island hurricane of 1856 was an intense Atlantic hurricane that destroyed Last Island in southern Louisiana. Little known then, even today he is relatively unknown outside the circle of New Orleans cultural devotees. However, more books have been written about him than any former resident of New Orleans other than Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong (August 4 1901 &ndash July 6 1971 nicknamed Satchmo or Sachimo and Pops, was an American Jazz Trumpeter His footprint in the history of Creole cooking is visible even today. [3]

Hearn's writings for the New Orleans newspapers included impressionistic sketches of New Orleans places and characters and many stern, vigorous editorials denouncing political corruption, street crime, violence, intolerance and the failures of public health and hygiene officials. Despite the fact that Hearn is credited with "inventing" New Orleans as an exotic and mysterious place, his obituaries on the vodou leaders Marie Laveau and "Doctor" John Montenet are matter-of-fact and debunking. Marie Laveau ( September 10, 1801 – June 16, 1881) was an Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voudou renowned in New Orleans Dozens of Hearn's New Orleans writings are collected in Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn, a book edited by S. Fredrick Starr and published in 2001 by the University Press of Mississippi. (Professor Starr's scholarly introduction to Inventing New Orleans notes than many Japanese scholars of Hearn's life and work are now studying his decade in New Orleans. )[4]

Harper's sent Hearn to the West Indies as a correspondent in 1889. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Year 1889 ( MDCCCLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common He spent two years in the islands and produced Two Years in the French West Indies and Youma, The Story of a West-Indian Slave (both 1890). Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

Later life in Japan

Lafcadio Hearn, shown with Setsu Koizumi and their first son. Note the way he is facing - he always preferred to be photographed this way so that his left eye could not be seen.
Lafcadio Hearn, shown with Setsu Koizumi and their first son. Note the way he is facing - he always preferred to be photographed this way so that his left eye could not be seen.

In 1890, Hearn went to Japan with a commission as a newspaper correspondent, which was quickly broken off. Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common It was in Japan, however, that he found his home and his greatest inspiration. Through the goodwill of Basil Hall Chamberlain, Hearn gained a teaching position in the summer of 1890 at the Shimane Prefectural Common Middle School and Normal School in Matsue, a town in western Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Basil Hall Chamberlain ( 18 October 1850 &ndash 15 February 1935) was a professor of Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost is the capital city of Shimane Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. Most Japanese identify Hearn with Matsue, as it was here that his image of Japan was molded. Today, The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum (小泉八雲記念館) and Lafcadio Hearn's Old Residence (小泉八雲旧居) are still two of Matsue's most popular tourist attractions. During his 15-month stay in Matsue, Hearn married Setsu Koizumi, the daughter of a local samurai family, and became a naturalized Japanese, taking the name Koizumi Yakumo.

In late 1891, Hearn took another teaching position in Kumamoto, Kyushu, at the Fifth Higher Middle School, where he spent the next three years and completed his book Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894). is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the Island of Kyūshū, Japan. In October 1894 he secured a journalism position with the English-language Kobe Chronicle, and in 1896, with some assistance from Chamberlain, he began teaching English literature at Tokyo (Imperial) University, a post he held until 1903. The, abbreviated as, is a major Research university located in Tokyo, Japan. In 1904, he was a professor at Waseda University. often abbreviated to, is one of the top universities in Japan. On September 26, 1904, he died of heart failure at the age of 54. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 1904 ( MCMIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting on

In the late 19th century Japan was still largely unknown and exotic to the Western world. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar With the introduction of Japanese aesthetics, however, particularly at the Paris World's Fair in 1900, the West had an insatiable appetite for exotic Japan, and Hearn became known to the world through the depth, originality, sincerity, and charm of his writings. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Expo (short for "exposition" and also known as World Fair and World's Fair) is the name given to various large public exhibitions held since the Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar In later years, some critics would accuse Hearn of exoticizing Japan, but as the man who offered the West some of its first glimpses into pre-industrial and Meiji Era Japan, his work still offers valuable insight today. Exoticism (from 'exotic' is a trend in Art and Design, influenced by some ethnic groups or civilizations since the late 19th-century The, or Meiji era, denotes the 45-year reign of the Meiji Emperor, running in the Gregorian calendar, from 23 October 1868 to 30 July

Legacy

The Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi adapted four Hearn tales into his 1965 film, Kwaidan. was a Japanese director. Among his films is Kwaidan (1965 a collection of four ghost stories drawn from the book by Lafcadio Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. is a 1964 Japanese Anthology film directed by Masaki Kobayashi; the title means 'ghost story'

Several Hearn stories have been adapted by Ping Chong into his trademark puppet theatre, including the 1999 Kwaidan and the 2002 OBON: Tales of Moonlight and Rain. Ping Chong (Chinese name 張[[wikt 家|家]] 平; pinyin Zhāng Jiāpíng b A puppet is a representational figure manipulated by a Puppeteer.

Hearn's life and works were celebrated in The Dream of a Summer Day, a play that toured Ireland in April and May 2005, which was staged by the Storytellers Theatre Company and directed by Liam Halligan. The Dream of a Summer Day was a play that was shown at select locations around Ireland in March April and May of 2005. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It is a detailed dramatization of Hearn's life, with four of his ghost stories woven in.

Yone Noguchi is quoted as saying about Hearn, "His Greek temperament and French culture became frost-bitten as a flower in the North. Yone Noguchi, born (and known in Japan as Yonejiro Noguchi (野口米次郎 Noguchi Yonejirō, 1875 - 1947 was an influential writer of poetry fiction "[5]

There is also a cultural center named for Hearn at the University of Durham. Durham University is a University in Durham, England. It was founded as the University of Durham (which remains its official and legal name

Hearn was a major translator of the short stories of Guy de Maupassant[6]. Guy de Maupassant (gi də mopasɑ̃ (5 August 1850 &ndash 6 July 1893 was a popular 19th-century French Writer and considered one of the fathers of the modern

In Ian Fleming's You only Live Twice, James Bond retorts to his nemesis Blofeld's comment of "Have you ever heard the Japanese expression kirisute gomen?" with "Spare me the Lafcadio Hearn, Blofeld. "

Books written by Hearn on Japanese subjects

References

  1. ^ Hearn's Parents
  2. ^ Hearn, Lafcadio & Starr, S. Frederick (2001), Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 1578063531, <http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/spring2001/inventing_new_orleans.html Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn> 
  3. ^ A chronicle of Creole cuisine | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
  4. ^ Hearn, Lafcadio & Starr, S. Frederick (2001), Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 1578063531, <http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/spring2001/inventing_new_orleans.html Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn> 
  5. ^ Yone Noguchi
  6. ^ Lafcadio Hearn Bibliography

Further reading

External links

See also

The Japan Times is one of the few independent English language Newspapers published in Japan: it mainly competes with English editions of Events 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works This is a list of some (not all notable Writers in the Horror fiction genre.
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