LAFCADIO HEARN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 12

LAFCADIO HEARN.

A large" audience assembled at the Penwomen's rooms on Friday to hear a lecture on Lafcadio Hearn by Mr. A. B. : Chappell. Mrs. C'arr Rollett, vice-presi-dent, occupied the chair, and happily introduced the speaker, who was accorded deep attention and warm applause at the Close. Lafcadio Hearn stands alone as an exponent of Japanese life and character, his knowledge being firsthand during a residence of many years. He was born in one of the lonian Islands, of Irish and Greek parents, his sensitive, artistic nature being traceable ! to, this combination. After residing for some, years in America, where he enI gaged in journalistic work, he removed to Japan, and, as far as possible, became Japanese, adopting the Buddhist faith and marrying a Japanese lady. Journalism w?s again his occupation, until he finally abandoned it for a lec-

turesliip at Tokyo University. His lectures were greatly appreciated by his students, who transcribed them verbatim and published them after his death in 1904. Lafcadio Hearn's first} work, "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan," appeared in 1894; "Out of the East" the following T-car, and until, shortly before his death **« produced a book on Japan annually. Mr. Chappell closed an interesting and, illuminative address, by reading sev'"**l extracts from the author's works. illustrati^T-his scholarly style and high ideals in literature, .which he described as a moral exercise in emotional expression, After"oon; tea- was then handed round.