Lafcadio Hearn (1850, Greece - 1904, Japan) is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding personalities in world literature. He spent the first months and years of his life on the island of Leucadia, where he gained the formative impressions early on that were to accompany him throughout his life - from the Ionian to the Japanese archipelago. Years of education and apprenticeship in England, two busy decades in America and extensive study visits to the Caribbean characterise the author's life. At the age of 19, Hearn emigrated to the United States, and at the age of forty he went to Japan. He made his home there, found the love of his life, Koizumi Setsu, in the town of Matsue, and from then on called himself Koizumi Yakumo. He put his fascination for his adopted country on paper in numerous texts.