Lafcadio Hearn

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn was a Greek and Irish writer, translator and teacher, born on the Greek island of Lefkada on 27 June 1850, whose work played a significant role in introducing the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world. He moved to Dublin as a child, where he was abandoned first by his mother, then his father, and finally by his father's aunt, and at the age of 19 he immigrated to the United States, where he worked as a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati and New Orleans. He was sent as a correspondent to Martinique for two years and in 1890 to Japan, where he remained for the rest of his life, marrying Setsuko Koizumi, becoming a Japanese citizen and taking the name Yakumo Koizumi. His collections of legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture. He died of heart failure in Tokyo on 26 September 1904 at the age of 54.