LEAVES FROM THE
DIARY OF AN IMPRESSIONIST

EARLY WRITINGS

BY

LAFCADIO HEARN

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

FERRIS GREENSLET

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1911

... Jeune artiste, tu attends un sujet?Tout est sujet; le sujet c'est toi-même:ce sont tes impressions, tes emotionsdevant la nature. C'est toi qu'il faut regarder,et non autour de toi.

Eugène Delacroix.


CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

FLORIDIAN REVERIES

TO THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
A TROPICAL INTERMEZZO
A NAME IN THE PLAZA
VULTUR AURA

CREOLE PAPERS

QUAINT NEW ORLEANS AND ITS HABITANTS
CREOLE WOMEN IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES

ARABESQUES

ARABIAN WOMEN
RABYAH'S LAST RIDE


INTRODUCTION

I

On a memorable day a good many years ago a certain sub-editor,exploring the morning's mail, found his sense enthralled by a weird,sad, delicious odor. Perfumes in the mail were not unheard-of: violetsthere had been, and musk, and orange blossoms, and tobacco; and thesub-editor, with a fantasy appropriate to his station, even pridedhimself on his ability to close his eyes and pick out a Californiacontribution by the unaided sense of smell. But never before had therebeen anything like this. Its chief essence was sandalwood, that wasclear, but sandalwood so etherealized and mingled with I know notwhat of exotic scents that it gave to the imagination a provocativeghostly thrill indescribable. The basket of the Muses, hastily tumbled,disclosed a portentous envelope of straw color, with queer blue stampsin one corner, and queer unknown characters in another; yet queerest ofall was the address in an odd orientalized hand, done with delicate,curiously curving strokes of the pen. Within, in a script still lessSpencerian, these words met the sub-editor's excited eye:—

The Dream of Akinosuké

'In the district called Toïchi of Yamato province, there used to livea gōshi named Miyata Akinosuké'; and so on through some twenty pages,telling a mystical legend of old Japan in a lovely and melodiousEnglish style.

This was the writer's first introduction to Lafcadio Hearn, knownto him up to that time only by a somewhat formidable repute as 'thebest interpreter of Japan,' and mentally scheduled for perusal on aconvenient opportunity which had never come. Since then Hearn's twentyvolumes have been read and

...

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!


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