LAFCADIO HEARN
The Hearn crest is "on
a mount vert a heron
arg.," and the motto
"Ardua petit ardea."
Lafcadio Hearn and His Wife.LAFCADIO HEARN
by
NINA H. KENNARD
containing some letters from lafcadio hearn
to his half-sister, mrs. atkinson
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
MCMXII
Copyright, 1912, By
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
REMEMBRANCE
No regret is vain. It is sorrow that spins thethread,—softer than moonshine, thinner than fragrance, strongerthan death,—the Gleipnir-chain of the Greater Memory.
[Pg vii]
PREFACE
When Death has set his seal on an eminentman's career, there is a not unnatural curiosity to know something ofhis life, as revealed by himself, particularly in letters to intimatefriends. "All biography ought, as much as possible, to beautobiography," says Stevenson, and of all autobiographical material,letters are the most satisfactory. Generally written on the impulse ofthe moment, with no idea of subsequent publication, they come, as itwere, like butter fresh from the churning with the impress of the mindof the writer stamped distinctly upon them. One letter of George Sand'swritten to Flaubert, or one of Goethe's to Frau von Stein, or his friendStilling, is worth pages of embellished reminiscences.
The circumstances surrounding Lafcadio Hearn's life and work impart aparticular interest and charm to his correspondence. He was, as hehimself imagined, unfitted by personal defect from being looked uponwith favour in general society. This idea, combined with innatesensitive shyness, caused him, especially towards the latter years ofhis life, to become more or less of a recluse, and induced him to seekan outlet in intellectual commune with literary comrades on paper. Hencethe wonderful series of letters, edited by Miss Elizabeth Bisland (Mrs.Wetmore), to Krehbiel, Ellwood Hendrik, and Chamberlain. Those toProfessor Chamberlain, written during the most productive literaryperiod of his life, from the vantage ground, as it were, of many yearsof intellectual work and experience, are particularly interesting,giving a unique and illuminating revelation of a cultured andpassionately enthusiastic nature.
[Pg viii]
During his stay at Kumamoto, when the bulk of the letters toChamberlain were written, he initiated a correspondence with hishalf-sister, Mrs. Atkinson, who had written to him from Ireland. Hiserratic nature, tamed and softened by the birth of his son, Kazuo,turned with yearning towards his kindred, forgotten for so many years,and these Atkinson letters, though not boasting the high intellectuallevel of those to Professor Chamberlain, show him, in their affectionateplayfulness, and in the quaint memories recalled of his childhood, undera new and delightful aspect.
There has been a certain amount of friction with his Americaneditress, owing to the fact of