Until the publication of his "Fantastics and Other Fancies" the work done by Lafcadio Hearn for the Item was utterly unknown. But those weird or dreamy sketches constituted but a small part of his work on that little journal. As assistant editor during the earlier years of his stay in New Orleans, he produced an immense number of editorials, translations, book reviews, dramatic criticisms, and sketches of all sorts, writing as he did for the paper every day, andnot merely on Sundays, as was for the most part his custom in the case of his work with the Times-Democrat in the later years of his sojourn in this city.
The present volume contains a selection from his "Creole Sketches" together with a few other fanciful papers in a similar vein. Partly because he was always deeply immersed in work or in study, partly on account of his natural shyness, he led in New Orleans the life of a recluse. Yet he had some friends, whom he greatly valued, and who still speak warmly of their intercourse with him. In one of his letters to Basil Hall Chamberlain, many years afterwards, he speaks of Charles Gayarré, the historian, as a "charming friend" of his. And in another letter to Chamberlain, in his remarks on modern Provençal, he says, "Some of my New Orleans friends used to speak it well." George W. Cable, the novelist, whose works he reviewed in the Item with enthusiastic praise, says that Hearn was a frequent visitor at his house, and that they profited by mutual frank criticism of each other's writings. Dr. Rudolph Matas, the renowned surgeon, tells of intimate companionship with him during his stay in this city. Dr. Lucien Salomon, a physician of long-established reputation, states that he was introduced to him by Dr. Matas, and that, despite his eccentricities, he found him a "lovable fellow." We know that Hearn's lifelong friendship with Miss Elizabeth Bisland, now Mrs. C. W. Wetmore, began when they were workers together in the office of the Times-Democrat. During these later years, too, he was befriended by the Bakers, both Page and Marion, and the wife of the latter, known to literature as Julia K. Wetherell. He had friends, too, who were not so intellectual, but for whom his affection was great. One of these was Mrs. Courtney, his landlady through the later years of his sojourn in this city, to whom he wrote from time to time, during temporary absences, letters that prove how much he valued her kindness, and with whom he left that notebook which enables us largely to supplement his bibliography. hitherto confined to the lists set down in Dr. Gould's book.
It is true that many of these friendships date from a period subsequent to his connection with the Item. But during those earlier years he resided wholly in the Creole quarter of the city, and there he had large opportunities for studying Creole character and Creole customs. At this time Colonel John W. Fairfax, then owner of the Item, was, with the exception of George W. Cable, perhaps his only friend, in the city. But he evidently soon made other friends, and those chiefly among persons more familiar with the Creole, than with the American, side of the city.

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• Literature & Fiction

• Publication Date: May 2, 2015
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• Print Length: 54 Pages
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