A Psychological Biography of Lafcadio Hearn

Abstract

During his fourteen-year sojourn in Japan, (1890-1904) Lafcadio Hearn produced eleven books and innumerable articles about his adopted homeland, becoming the initial and most legendary interpreter of Japan to the West. His fascination with the mysteries of the Orient commenced upon first viewing the Japanese display at the 1884 New Orleans exposition. The fragile miniature-like artifacts stirred his appreciation for beauty and color and created images of a desired exotic environment. Several years later Hearn read Perceval Lowell's book, The Soul of the Far East, which introduced him to the philosophical stimulation of Asia. Dissatisfied with the progressing modernity and ensuing confusion of New York and encouraged by the promise of Harper's Monthly to publish acceptable material from Japan, he ventured toward the East. Thus accompanied by C. V. Weldon, a Harper's photographer, Lafcadio Hearn; approaching his fortieth birthday, arrived in Yokohama, Japan in the spring of 1890 to live out the remaining fourteen years of his life and write his greatest masterpieces.