[O]ne of his intimate friends at this time, in an article written after his death, speaks of his friendship with the children of her family, with whom he was an affectionate playfellow, and with whom he was entirely confident and at his ease. An equally friendly and confident relation existed between himself and the old negro woman who cared for his rooms (as clean and plain as a soldier’s), and indeed all his life he was happiest with the young and the simple, who never perplexed or disturbed him by the complexities of modern civilization, which all his life he distrusted and feared.

. . . .

[Hearn’s first book, One of Cleopatra’s Nights and Other Fantastic Romances, a translation of six stories by Théophile Gautier] . . . travelled far before finding a publisher [in 1882], and then only at the cost of the author bearing half the expense of publication. . . .

[N]otices had been less kind. The Observer . . . had declared that it was a collection of “stories of unbridled lust without the apology of natural passion,” and that “the translation reeked with the miasma of the brothel.” The Critic had wasted no time upon the translator, confining itself to depreciation of Gautier, and this Hearn resented more than severity to himself. . . .

“Stray Leaves from Strange Literature” [retold legends and fables, including those from Finland, Egypt, Polynesia, India, et al.]—published by James R. Osgood and Company of Boston—followed in 1884 and was more kindly treated by the critics . . . [but] was not very profitable—save to his reputation. In 1885 a tiny volume was issued under the title of “Gombo Zhêbes,” [sic], being a collection of 350 Creole proverbs which he had made while studying the patois of the Louisiana negro—a patois of which the local name is “Gombo.” These laborious studies of the grammar and oral literature of a tongue spoken only by and to negro servants in Louisiana seemed rather a work of supererogation at the time, but later during his life in the West Indies they proved of incalculable value to him in his intercourse with the inhabitants. . . .

“Some Chinese Ghosts” [retold Chinese ghost stories] had set out on its travels in search of a publisher sometime earlier, and after several rejections was finally, in the following year, accepted by Roberts Brothers.

. . . .

[A] great change . . . had come upon . . . [Hearn’s] mental attitude. The strong breath of the great thinker [Herbert Spencer] had blown from off his mind the froth and ferment of youth, leaving the wine clear and strong beneath. From this time becomes evident a new seriousness in his manner, and beauty became to him not only the mere grace of form but the meaning and truth which that form was to embody.

The next book bearing his name shows the effect of this change, and the immediate success of the book demonstrated that, while his love for the exotic was to remain ingrained, he had learned to bring the exotic into vital touch with the normal.