Lafcadio Hearn(1850-1904)
- Writer
At the age of 6, Lafcadio Hearn, who had been born in Leucos in the
Greek Ionian Islands to a Greek mother and an Irish father, was made a
ward of his Irish great-aunt, who packed him off to Jesuit boarding
schools in France and Britain. At the age of 16, he was sent to the US,
where he worked as a journalist in Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans,
Louisiana. He translated French literature into English and began to
develop his own taste, which was for the foreign, the exotic,
and--sometimes--the macabre. Hearn's life changed radically when he
traveled to Japan in 1890. He fell in love with the place and then with
Setsu Koizumi, the daughter of a samurai family whose husband had
deserted her and left her penniless. They were married in 1891. Hearn
enthusiastically became a Japanese citizen, took the name Yakumo
Koizumi, and acquired a teaching position at Imperial University, which
he held until 1903. His interpretations of things Japanese--customs,
geography, folk tales and literature--were internationally translated,
widely admired, and adapted into films such as
Kwaidan (1964); any of his works are still
in print today. His loyalty and love for his adopted country was
unflagging throughout his life. He died at the age of 54.
