It is remarkable how persistent a "minor" writer may be. He may
lack the large vision and universal message of the great writer,
but instead possess a clear, true, intense view of particular
places, peoples, and situations that renders his work unique and
irreplacable. Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) is such a figure in
American literature. Best known as a scholar of Japanese culture,
Hearn was a remarkable journalist, translator, travel writer, and
perhaps second only to Poe in the literature of the macabre and
supernatural. Hearn's life, as strange and colorful as his work, is
brilliantly recounted in Elizabeth Stevenson's sensitive and
sympathetic biography. The range of Hearn's writing is reflected in
the peripatetic course of his life. The son of an Irish father and
a Greek mother, he was born on the Ionian island of Leucadia, was
raised in Dublin, and came to America at the age of nineteen. His
early career was spent as a journalist. Without a trace of
condescension or pity he entered into the lives of the dock workers
of Cincinnati, the Creoles of New Orleans and Martinique, and later
the common villagers of Japan, describing how they lived and worked
and what they believed. No mere seeker after the exotic, Hearn's
immersion in Japanese culture following his emigration in 1890 was
born of a profound affinity of mind and sensibility. In Japan, the
clarity and force of his expression matured. Here Hearn found a
beautifully ordered, artistically sensitive society, but one
indifferent to individualism. In later years, he saw a society also
increasingly susceptible to modern forces of authoritarianism,
militarism, and xenophobia. Horrified by the dehumanizing potential
of these forces, in East and West alike, Hearn remained acutely
sensitive to the most minute experience. His study of Japanese
folklore and his retelling of its tales and ghost stories combine
insight into the universals of the larger human world with an
exquisite appreciation of how small things matter. Elizabeth
Stevenson's book is as much about the writer as the man. While
giving an accurate measure of the scale of Hearn's achievement, she
makes a compelling case for its artistry. Her reading demonstrates
that his writings are not mere aids to the understanding of various
cultures but ends in themselves. Hearn did not just translate the
folklore of other cultures, he recreated it. "The Grass Lark" will
interest literary scholars, American studies specialists, and
folklorists.
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