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Transcriber's Note

Footnotes have been placed at the end of each paragraph in which they
are referenced.

There are several captioned photographs, which are indicated as
[Illustration: Caption]. Hearn also included in his letters small
sketches. Their approximate positions are indicated with [Illustration].
Any handwritten text in those sketches is included here as captions.

Italic text is denoted with underscores as _italic_. There is a small
amount of Greek which is transliterated and enclosed in brackets as
[Larkadie]. The characters 'o', 'a' and 'u' appear with a macron, a
straight bar atop the letter. These use the '=' sign as 'T[=o]ky[=o]'.

The occasional superscript is simply left inline (e.g., 'nth'). The use
of subscripts is limited to a single instance. The underscore character
indicates this: L_3 H_9 NG_4.

The sole instance of the 'oe' ligature is given as is seen here:
'onomatopoeia'.

Some corrections were made where printer's errors were most likely,
as described in the Note at the end of the text. Other than those
corrections, no changes to spelling have been made. Hyphenation of
words at line or page breaks are removed if other instances of the word
warrant it.

This book was published in two volumes, of which this is the first.
The second volume was released as Project Gutenberg ebook #42313,
available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42313.




       +--------------------------------------------------------+
       |                  By Lafcadio Hearn                     |
       |                                                        |
       | THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY, AND OTHER STUDIES AND    |
       |     STORIES. 12mo, gilt top, $1.25 _net._ Postage      |
       |    extra.                                              |
       |                                                        |
       | KWAIDAN: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. With   |
       |    two Japanese Illustrations. 12mo, gilt top, $1.50.  |
       |                                                        |
       | GLEANINGS IN BUDDHA-FIELDS. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25.     |
       |                                                        |
       | KOKORO. Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life. 16mo, |
       |     gilt top, $1.25.                                   |
       |                                                        |
       | OUT OF THE EAST. Reveries and Studies in New Japan.    |
       |     16mo, $1.25.                                       |
       |                                                        |
       | GLIMPSES OF UNFAMILIAR JAPAN. 2 vols. crown 8vo, gilt  |
       |    top, $4.00.                                         |
       |                                                        |
       | STRAY LEAVES FROM STRANGE LITERATURE. 16mo, $1.50.     |
       |                                                        |
       |                                                        |
       |               HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.                  |
       |                BOSTON AND NEW YORK.                    |
       +--------------------------------------------------------+




             LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN

                           VOLUME I

[Illustration: Lafcadio Hearn]

                     THE LIFE AND LETTERS

                             OF

                       LAFCADIO HEARN

                             BY

                     ELIZABETH BISLAND

                    _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_

                       IN TWO VOLUMES

                           VOL. I

[Illustration: The Riverside Press]

                    BOSTON AND NEW YORK
                 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
              The Riverside Press Cambridge

        COPYRIGHT 1906 BY ELIZABETH BISLAND WETMORE

                    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

                 _Published December 1906_




PREFACE

In the course of the preparation of these volumes there was gradually
accumulated so great a number of the letters written by Lafcadio Hearn
during twenty-five years of his life, and these letters proved of so
interesting a nature, that eventually the plan of the whole work was
altered. The original intention was that they should serve only to
illuminate the general text of the biography, but as their number and
value became more apparent it was evident that to reproduce them in full
would make the book both more readable and more illustrative of the
character of the man than anything that could possibly be related of
him.

No biographer could have so vividly pictured the modesty and
tender-heartedness, the humour and genius of the man as he has
unconsciously revealed these qualities in unstudied communications to
his friends. Happily--in these days when the preservation of letters is
a rare thing--almost every one to whom he wrote appeared instinctively
to treasure--even when he was still unknown--every one of his
communications, though here and there regrettable gaps occur, owing to
the accidents of changes of residence, three of which, as every one
knows, are more destructive of such treasures than a fire. To all of his
correspondents who have so generously contributed their treasured
letters I wish to express my sincere thanks. Especially is gratitude due
to Professor Masanubo Otani, of the Shinshu University of T[=o]ky[=o],
for the painstaking accuracy and fulness of the information he
contributed as to the whole course of Hearn's life in Japan.

The seven fragments of autobiographical reminiscence, discovered after
Hearn's death, added to the letters, narrowed my task to little more
than the recording of dates and such brief comments and explanations as
were required for the better comprehension of his own contributions to
the book.

Naturally some editing of the letters has been necessary. Such parts as
related purely to matters of business have been deleted as uninteresting
to the general public; many personalities, usually both witty and
trenchant, have been omitted, not only because such personalities are
matters of confidence between the writer and his correspondent, a
confidence which death does not render less inviolable, but also because
the dignity and privacy of the living have every claim to respect.
Robert Browning's just resentment at the indiscreet editing of the
FitzGerald Letters is a warning that should be heeded, and it is
moreover certain that Lafcadio Hearn himself would have been profoundly
unwilling to have any casual criticism of either the living or the dead
given public record. Of those who had been his friends he always spoke
with tenderness and respect, and I am but following what I know to be
his wishes in omitting all references to his enemies.

That such a definite and eccentric person as he should make enemies was
of course unavoidable. If any of these retain their enmity to one who
has passed into the sacred helplessness of death, and are inclined to
think that the mere outline sketch of the man contained in the following
pages lacks the veracity of shadow, my answer is this: In the first
place, I have taken heed of the opinion he himself has expressed in one
of his letters: "I believe we ought not to speak of the weaknesses of
very great men"--and the intention of such part of this book as is my
own is to give a history of the circumstances under which a great man
developed his genius. I have purposely ignored all such episodes as
seemed impertinent to this end, as from my point of view there seems a
sort of gross curiosity in raking among such details of a man's life as
he himself would wish ignored. These I gladly leave to those