Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) who became known as Koizumi Yakumo was a writer who is best known for his books about Japan.
Yakumo was born to an Irish father and Greek mother in Greece. The family moved to Ireland when he was 2. As a teenager, an accident left him with vision in only one eye.
At 19, he immigrated to the United States. He became a respected journalist and wrote for the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer. When it was discovered he had married a black woman--which was illegal at the time--he was fired. The couple divorced in 1877.
From 1877 to 1887, Hearn lived in New Orleans and wrote about Creole culture and voodoo practices and other things specific to the area.
From 1887 to 1889, he lived on Martinique and wrote two books about the French West Indies. In 1890, Hearn went to Japan where he would live the rest of his life.
He married a Japanese woman with whom he had four children. In 1896, he took the name Koizumi Yakumo and became a naturalized citizen.
He taught English and English literature and wrote about Japanese folk life. He died in 1904 of heart failure.--Heidi Durrow
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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
