Outsider: The Life and Work of Lafcadio Hearn: The Man Who Introduced Voodoo, Creole Cooking and Japanese Ghosts to the World

by Steve Kemme, Bon Koizumi (Foreword)

"I had read a book about Japan by Lafcadio Hearn, and what he wrote about Japanese culture and their theatre aroused my desire to go there." --Charlie Chaplin

Genres: Japan, Biography, Nonfiction

276 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2023

Reviews

[LAPL Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lafcadio Hearn, a man with unusual origins and a complex life, whose early life gave no indication as to what he would later achieve, as he repeatedly overcame obstacles and controversies that became a part of his life until his death, and even after. The subtitle of the book is an enticing hint to Lafcadio Hearn’s achievements and to his fascinating life. His father was an Irish officer-surgeon and his mother was a noble-blooded Greek woman, and he was born in 1850 on the Greek island of Lefkada. Lafcadio is a variation on the place where he was born. Abandoned by both parents, he was initially raised by his great-aunt in Ireland, where he had a private tutor, but the young boy was more interested in his aunt's library, especially books about Greek literature and myths. His aunt was concerned that he was turning away from Catholicism and enrolled him in a parochial school in France. It was there that he developed what became a life-long hatred for Catholicism. His interest and appreciation for Buddhism was more of a match to his intellect and beliefs. When he was sixteen years old his left eye was seriously injured and permanently damaged due to an accident at school. For the rest of his life the discoloration of this eye was a source of self-consciousness.

His aunt’s finances were mismanaged and there was no money for Hearn's further education, either to attend classes or be tutored. He was sent to London to earn his living and that is where he discovered the appalling conditions of city life. It was in libraries and the British Museum where he satisfied his intellectual curiosity. Later he moved to the United States and lived in New York City and Cincinnati where he was also taken aback by the Dickensian life of ordinary people in large cities. His personal situations in these large urban cities were similar to the ordinary people he saw on the streets who struggled to earn a living and find a place to live. In Cincinnati he became a night-beat reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, and it was the underbelly of life that he wrote about that was equally fascinating to him and his readers. When he married a 20-year-old African woman and former slave, it was a violation of Ohio's anti-miscegenation law and the peripatetic Hearn was on the move again. This time to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he researched and wrote the first American book on Creole cooking, La cuisine creole. He did other work there as well, as an editor and translator, and to this day he is very much revered in New Orleans. This year he was the inspiration for the 2024 New Orleans Rex parade. Hearn traveled to the West Indies and then to Japan, where he found his true home--intellectually and spiritually. Wherever he traveled his curiosity was an impetus to do research, primarily to observe and listen to what was happening around him.

In Japan he married a Japanese woman, with whom he had four children. The preface to this biography is written by his great-grandson, Bon Koizumi, a professor at the University of Shimane Junior College and director of the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum in Matsue, which is housed in Hearn’s first home in Japan. He writes about Hearn's "open-mindedness," tolerance and interest in other cultures, ideas and ways of life that included the supernatural. This biography offers fresh insights into the life of a man who wrote numerous books, mostly about Japan, but also about other places and subjects that interested him.

Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a thorough account of the life of Hearn, and has obviously been very well researched. However, the book would have been improved by some more rigorous editing. The author has a tendency to quote large chunks of Hearn’s writing, especially in the early stages of the book, which become somewhat overpowering. There are also numerous spelling and grammar mistakes in the text.

[Chole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting and extremely well researched. However, this book definitely could have benefited from another round of editing - there were a lot of missing words and punctuation throughout the whole thing. That said, definitely recommend for anyone who wants to take a deep dive into Lafcadio Hearn's life.

[John Kachuba · Rating 5 out of 5]

There have been several biographies of writer Lafcadio Hearn published over the years and, as a Hearn scholar, I’ve read many of them. By far, the best I’ve read is The Outsider written by Steve Kemme who, like Hearn, was a Cincinnati Enquirer journalist.

Kemme’s writing is informative, lucid, entertaining, and obviously well-researched. Hearn’s own words, taken from his books, newspaper articles, and letters, are interspersed within the documentary text and are clearly annotated so that a serious reader can go to the primary source if desired.

Hearn was, to say the least, a complex man and Kemme does a masterful job in demonstrating how the passions and hardships of Hearn’s life inform his writing. We read about his keen powers of observation, despite the irony of one blind eye, the other extremely myopic. His love for the weird, the gruesome and macabre, the uncanny, was one feature in his writing that made Hearn such a popular writer in Cincinnati, where he got his start in journalism in the late nineteenth-century, and later in New Orleans and finally, Japan. Kemme pulls together all the mysterious strings that were Hearn’s character and gives the reader a full and complete picture of Hearn.

A section of photographs, some of which are published here for the first time, is a nice addition to the book.

More Americans need to know about and read Lafcadio Hearn and if restricted to only one book, make it Steve Kemme’s The Outsider.

[Fachrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It provides a detailed overview of Hearn's life. The author wisely quoted Hearn's own writings at length, giving the readers a taste of Hearn's style and evolution as a writer. Despite only having read 2 of Hearn's books (and thus a novice), I bought this book anyway because of I really enjoyed his writing style. The quoted excerpts confirmed that his style is exactly my cup of tea. I am looking forward to reading more of Hearn's works.

That said, as other readers have mentioned, the typos are pretty noticeable. I understand all too well how difficult it is to get rid entirely of typos, but for a biography published by an eminent publishing house, a higher standard is expected.

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging introduction to Hearn’s life and writing. Pleasing to see a focus on the early days in Cincinnati and New Orleans. A shame, though, that greater care wasn’t taken by Tuttle with copy-editing — there are a number of spelling errors throughout.

[Trish Graboske · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting biography of a very interesting life. I've loved reading Lafcadio Hearn's writing as well. Book does have quite a few typos and missing words.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive without being exhausting

[Dylan Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely wonderful biography about an extremely influential but seldom discussed Lafcadio Hearn.

[Mary-Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrible editing but otherwise interesting

[Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although my inner grammarian clutched its pearls at the frequent editorial errors, The Outsider was nevertheless a highly readable account of a fascinating individual.