The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-08
IAFCADIO HEARN.

One Of the most picturesque figures III
contemp0raneOus literature IS Lafcadlo
Hearn, a naturalized Japanese citizen,
who is living in the land Of his adoption
and writing charmingly of it for the
Atlantic Monthly. The remarkable story
Of Mr.. Hearn's life reads like a romance;
born III the Ionian Islands, his mother
was Greek and his father an Irish
officer in the English army AS child
he spoke only Greek and Italian, and
after his adoption by a grand-aunt, was
brought up as n Roman Catholic. The
name Lafcadio is said to have come from
the name of the town, Leueadia, where
he was born At the age of sixteen
years he was sent to France to be
educated. Left alone in the world by
the death of his father and mother, at
the age of nineteen years he came to this
country, without means to make his own
way. Extremely ignorant of all practical
matters, and greatly troubled by defective
eye-sight, he drifted about and finally
located in Cincinnati, where he took up
proof reading and editorial work on news
papers. Not long after this he went
South and there did editorial work for a
number of years. Leaving New Orleans
in 1887 he went for rest and recupera-
ton to the West Indies. The tropics
and the old French colonial life proved
irresistible, and he remained there two
years before returning to New York. He
never abandoned the dream of going
back to some part of the tropics again.
A curious chance took him to Japan.
There, after many wanderings, he seem
ed to find the country and life for which
he was made, and he chose this country
rs his home, devoting his time to study
and literary work. He accepted a pro-
fessorship at the Imperial University,
Toxic, and became a Japanese citizen
and married a Japanese wife. Thus
by various chances the American citizen
of Greek and Irish descent becomes y.
Koizumi, the japanese. Since his resi-
dence in Japan Mr.. Hearn has written
extensively for the Atlantic of this coun-
try, and has done more than any writer
of the day to familiarize the world with
this marvellous people. Their art, litera-
ture, and religion are familiar subjects
to Mr.. Hearn, and he brings to the task
of writing upon them the result Of Eu-
ropean training and education. His last
published volume okoro, Studies of
japanese Life and Character. lis said
by competent critics to be the most
remarkable Interpretation of Japan ever
given to the reading world.
His is a mind in sympathy with Budd-
hist philosophy, and his writings betray a
rare insight into Japanese life and
thought. Practically all his essays have
appeared from time to time in the At
lantic Monthly. The November issue
contains Dust" contribution from his
pen which is in some ways the most
unusual magazine article of the year.
Covering less than half a dozen pages,
| it explains the Eastern conception of
death, in language at once so clear and
beautiful that aside from it's philosophic
qualities the article is OF rare literary
/ excellence. The unusual circumstances
Of a European, matured and educated
under Western conditions, transplanted
10 Japan has made it possible for Western
readers to understand the life and philoso-
/ ply Of that country as never before; and
/ Mr.. Hearn is interpreting it in a most
! delightful fashion. The Atlantic prom
! Uses further papers from Mr.. Hearn's
/ pen.