This image is the cover for the book Exotics and Retrospectives, Classics To Go

Exotics and Retrospectives, Classics To Go

In Exotics and Retrospectives, Lafcadio Hearn plays the role not only of tour guide, but also dreamscaper. Whether through his narrative recounting of Japanese customs and traditional tales, or while sharing his personal observations and flights of fancy, Hearn's graceful and poetic prose enables the reader to enter a foreign world. Covering subjects from Buddhism to beauty to the color blue to being, he gently, honestly, and humorously lays bare philosophical truths (sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly) so that they may be both seen and felt, and thus better understood. (Goodreads)

Lafcadio Hearn

Koizumi Yakumo (27 June 1850 – 26 September 1904), born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn was a writer. He worked in the United States before moving to Japan and becoming Japanese. He was of Greek-Irish descent. He wrote about Japanese culture, especially his collections of legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. In the United States, he is also known for his writings about New Orleans, based on his decade-long stay there. Hearn was born on the Greek island of Lefkada to a Greek mother and an Irish father, after which a complex series of conflicts and events led to him being moved to Dublin, where he was abandoned first by his mother, then his father, and finally by his father's aunt (who had been appointed his official guardian). At the age of 19, he emigrated to the United States, where he found work as a newspaper reporter, first in Cincinnati and later in New Orleans. From there, he was sent as a as a correspondent to the French West Indies, where he stayed for two years, and then to Japan, where he would remain for the rest of his life. In Japan, Hearn married a Japanese woman with whom he had four children. His writings about Japan offered the Western world a glimpse into a largely unknown but fascinating culture at the time. correspondent to the French West Indies, where he stayed for two years, and then to Japan, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

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