A Study of the Life and Writings of Lafcadio Hearn (2004)

Study Material for Lafcadio Hearn

See Study Material for Lafcadio Hearn 2010

Readings

• In a Japanese Garden (July 1892)
  • In A Japanese Garden photos by Negishi Yasuko
• Of Women's Hair (1894)
• Yuki-Onna from Kwaidan (1904)
  • Film: Kwaidan (1965)
    • Director: Masaki Kobayashi (biography from World Directors site)
    • Music: Toru Takemitsu (biography from Schott Music); (more Takemitsu Web Resources from University of Sydney)
• On a Bridge from A Japanese Miscellany (1901)
• Yuko A Reminiscence from Out of the East (1898) [link is to K.Inadomi's Private Library]
  • The Attack on the Czarevitch in Japan and The Departure of the Czarevitch from Japan from Henry Spencer Palmer Museum
• Two letters from Tokyo, 1897
• Lecture on Shakespeare, Tokyo University
• A Letter from Japan, 1904

Special Material

• Yone Noguchi, Lafcadio Hearn in Japan (1910)

Interesting Hearn links

• Lafcadio Hearn a brief biography (from Exploring Lafcadio Hearn website)
• The Literary Gothic Lafcadio Hearn
• Lafcadio Hearn (Steve Trussel)
• K.Inadomi's Private Library
• Kenneth Rexroth, Lafcadio Hearn and Japanese Buddhism
• Hearn articles from Cornell University Library (Harpers and Atlantic Monthly)
• In Japanese:
  • ヘルン文庫と小泉八雲（ラフカディオ・ハ−ン）

Hearn Chronology (with related internet links)

• 1848 Charles Hearn, army surgeon, sent to Greek island of Kythira (a.k.a. Cerigo Kythira, Kythera, Cythera); meets local girl Rosa Cassimati.
• 1849.6 Charles and pregnant Rosa elope to nearby island of Lefkas (a.k.a. Santa Maura, Levkas, Lefkada).  Rosa gives birth to a boy on July 24.  Rosa becomes pregnant again in the fall.  Charles leaves for England in February.
  • A complete guide of the island of Lefkada
• 1850-1852 Lefkas, Greece
• 1850.6.27 Patricio Lafcadio Hearn born.  Older brother dies in August.
• 1852-1862 Dublin, Ireland
• 1852.8.1 Lafcadio (age 2) arrives with mother and brother to Ireland to live with father's relatives when father is posted to West Indies; never sees father again.
  • The Townhouse, Dublin, former home of Hearn's paternal grandmother, where Hearn stayed briefly.
  • Hearn lived mainly at his aunt Sarah Brenane's house in the southern Dublin suburb of Rathmines (see Dublin_Suburbs for map)
• 1854 Rosa returns with Daniel to Greece; and remarries; Lafcadio never sees her again. 
• 1856 Charles returns, divorces Rosa.
• 1857 Charles remarries, leaves for India; Rosa remarries, sends brother Daniel back to Ireland.
• 1862 Lafcadio sent to Catholic school in France.
• 1863-1867 Durham, England
• 1863 (age 12 or 13) attends Saint Cuthbert's School near Durham, in England.
• 1866 (age 16) loses sight of left eye after a sports accident.
• 1867 (age 17) withdrawn from school due to aunt's financial problems.
• 1869 (age 18) given passage money for America by family connection Henry Molineaux, advised to find Molineaux's sister's husband in Cincinnati. 
• 1869-1877 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
  • some old photos of Cincinnati at Ohio Historical Society.
• 1869 spends several years in Cincinnati in extreme poverty.
• 1872 prints first article in Cincinnati Enquirer.
  • The Cedar Closet, Cincinnati Enquirer, March 1, 1874 from Gaslight.
• 1874 becomes regular staff member at Enquirer
• 1874 marries Mattie Foley, although the marriage violates state miscegenation laws.
• 1874 fired by Enquirer over concerns about his scandalous marriage; hired by Cincinnati Commercial
  • The Mound Builders, Cincinnati Commercial, April 24, 1876 (* Reader format from e-Asia).
• 1877 separates from Mattie Foley; leaves for New Orleans.
• 1877-1887 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
  • Hearn-Koizumi Center.
  • New Orleans Superstitions, Harper's weekly, Dec. 25, 1886 from Sacred-texts.
• 1887 arranges to travel to West Indies to write for Harper's
• 1887-1889 West Indies
  • La Verette and the Carnival In St. Pierre, Martinique, Harper's Monthly 77 (Oct. 1888) (from MoA, Cornell).
  • Les Porteuses. Harper's Monthly 79 (July, 1889) (from MoA, Cornell).
• 1889 arranges to visit Japan with a photographer to write articles for Harper's.
• 1890-1904 Japan
• 1890.4 arrives in Japan; breaks off relations with Harper's; Basil Hall Chamberlain finds him a teaching job in a Matsue middle school.
  • Collected Works of Basil Hall Chamberlain (introduction with photograph)
• 1890.8 arrives in Matsue
• 1891 marries Koizumi Setsuko; moves to Kumamoto to teach at the 5th Higher School.
  • 小泉八雲旧居（熊本市）・写真満載九州観光
• 1895 becomes Japanese citizen, takes name Koizumi Yakumo, moves to Kobe to work for the Kobe Chronicle.
• 1896 becomes professor of literature at Tokyo University.
• 1903 Tokyo University informs Hearn they will no longer pay Hearn's higher foreign salary arguing that he is Japanese; he resigns (and is replaced by Natsume Soseki), takes job at Waseda University.
• 1904 dies in Tokyo.

The picture of Lafcadio Hearn by Shoshu Saito is from Yone Noguchi's book, Lafcadio Hearn in Japan.

This page is accessible from: http://www.h.ehime-u.ac.jp/~marx/index.html
Last update: 2005.4.12