In Ghostly Japan - Softcover

Hearn, Lafcadio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804809658 ISBN 13: 9780804809658

Publisher: Tuttle Pub, 1971

Synopsis

1971-1977. Five books: 12mo, 388pp, 299pp., 241pp., 268pp., 251pp., appendices, illustrations and photographs throughout. Reprinting work first published from 1896-1902 (KOKORO and KOTTO are photo-reprints), these five books give an inside look at Japan through one of the world's great travelers and collectors of lore. Hearn's varied life and flight from Western materialism brought him to Japan in 1890, where he married, took the name Yakumo Koizumi, and wrote extensively about the land he came to love. This is a good sampling of the dozen books that appeared in his life, covering Japanese cultural life, poetry, songs, ghost stories, folktales, traditions, and reveries on the inner world of Japanese life, still strongly bound to ancient ways at the time of his writings.

About this title

About the Author:

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born on the Greek island of Lefkas, the son of an Anglo-Irish surgeon in the British army and a Greek mother. After his parent's divorce when he was six, he was brought up in Dublin by a great aunt. At the age of nineteen, he went to America, eventually ending up in New Orleans as a newspaper reporter. His flight from Western materialism brought him to Japan in 1890, where he worked for an English newspaper, the Kobe Chronicle, and taught in various schools. In 1896, he began teaching English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, a position he held until 1903, and at Waseda University. Hearn married a samurai's daughter, Koizumi Setsu, became a Japanese citizen and a Buddhist, and changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. At the young age of 54, he died of a heart attack. Hearn's search for beauty and tranquility, for pleasing customs and lasting values made him a confirmed Japanophile. His keen intellect, poetic imagination, and wonderful clear style permitted him to penetrate to the very essence of things Japanese. He became the great interpreter of things Japanese to the West. Hearn's most famous work is a collection of lectures entitled Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation (published posthumously in 1905). His other books on Japan include Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894), Out of the East (1895), Kokoro (1896), Gleanings in Buddha Fields (1897), Exotics and Retrospectives (1898), Shadowings (1900), A Japanese Miscellany (1901), and Kwaidan (1904).

About this edition

• Publisher: Tuttle Pub
• Publication date: 1971
• ISBN 10: 0804809658
• ISBN 13: 9780804809658
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 241