CONCERNING LAFCADIO HEARN
Frontispiece.
Concerning Lafcadio
Hearn. by george m. gould, m.d.
WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY
By LAURA STEDMAN
WITH FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE
LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20
1908
[All rights reserved]
CONTENTS
chap. page
I. HEREDITY AND THE EARLY LIFE 1
II. IN PERSON 7
III. THE PERIOD OF THE GRUESOME 13
IV. THE NEW ORLEANS TIME 33
V. AT MARTINIQUE 57
VI. "GETTING A SOUL" 65
VII. "IN GHOSTLY JAPAN" 81
VIII. AS A POET 93
IX. THE POET OF MYOPIA 103
X. HEARN'S STYLE 119
XI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 137
XII. APPRECIATIONS AND EPITOMES 143
BIBLIOGRAPHY 247
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
To face page
LAFCADIO HEARN, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY GUTEKUNST
IN 1889 Frontispiece
HEARN AT ABOUT THE AGE OF EIGHT, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH 5
REDUCED FIRST PAGE OF THE FIRST ISSUE OF "YE GIGLAMPZ" 21
LAFCADIO HEARN, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT MARTINIQUE, AUGUST 24, 1888 61
HANDWRITING OF HEARN IN 1889 68
PREFACE
[Pg x]
THERE are as many possible biographies of a man asthere are possible biographers—and one more! OfLafcadio Hearn there has been, and there will be, no excusefor any biography whatever. A properly edited volume ofhis letters, and, perhaps, a critical estimate of the methodsand development of his imaginative power and literarycharacter are, and still remain, most desirable. That