rcumstances surrounding Lafcadio Hearn's life and work impart a
particular interest and charm to his correspondence. He was, as he
himself imagined, unfitted by personal defect from being looked upon
with favour in general society. This idea, combined with innate
sensitive shyness, caused him, especially towards the latter years of
his life, to become more or less of a recluse, and induced him to seek
an outlet in intellectual commune with literary comrades on paper. Hence
the wonderful series of letters, edited by Miss Elizabeth Bisland (Mrs.
Wetmore), to Krehbiel, Ellwood Hendrik, and Chamberlain. Those to
Professor Chamberlain, written during the most productive literary
period of his life, from the vantage ground, as it were, of many years
of intellectual work and experience, are particularly interesting,
giving a unique and illuminating revelation of a cultured and
passionately enthusiastic nature.

During his stay at Kumamoto, when the bulk of the letters to Chamberlain
were written, he initiated a correspondence with his half-sister, Mrs.
Atkinson, who had written to him from Ireland. His erratic 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 intellectual level of those to
Professor Chamberlain, show him, in their affectionate playfulness, and
in the quaint memories recalled of his childhood, under a new and
delightful aspect.

There has been a certain amount of friction with his American editress,
owing to the fact of my having been given the right to use these
letters. It is as well, therefore, to explain that owing to criticisms
and remarks made about people and relatives, in Hearn's usual outspoken
fashion, it would have been impossible, in their original form, to allow
them to pass into the hands of any one but a person intimately connected
with the Hearn family; but I can assure Mrs. Wetmore and Captain
Mitchell McDonald--those kind friends who have done so much for the sake
of Hearn's children and widow--that Mrs. Koizumi, financially, suffers
nothing from the fact of the letters not having crossed the Atlantic.

Besides being indebted to Mrs. Atkinson for having been allowed to make
extracts from the letters written to her, my thanks are due to Miss
Edith Hardy, her cousin, for the use of diaries and reminiscences; also
to the Rev. Joseph Guinan, of Priests' House,