Lafcadio Hearn: The Outsider Who Understood New Orleans Best

Every city has that one person who sees it more clearly than anyone who was born there. In New Orleans, that person was Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-Irish journalist who arrived in the Crescent City in 1877, nearly broke and half blind, and spent the next decade writing about its food, music, voodoo, and soul with a precision that still holds up nearly 150 years later.

An Outsider Arrives

Lafcadio Hearn was born June 27, 1850, on the Greek island of Lefkas. He immigrated to America at 19, landing in Cincinnati where he became a newspaper reporter. He arrived in New Orleans in 1877 and stayed for about a decade, producing some of the most vivid descriptions of the city ever written.

Writing New Orleans Into Existence

During his years in New Orleans, Hearn wrote for local newspapers and national magazines including Harper's Weekly and Scribner's. He wrote about Creole culture, medicine, Carnival, bayou life, and the French Quarter. His book La Cuisine Creole was the first Creole cookbook, collecting recipes from the city's leading chefs and housewives.

Later Life

Hearn eventually left New Orleans for Japan, where he became a citizen and is considered one of the greatest Japanese writers of his era. But his New Orleans years produced some of the most important cultural documentation the city has ever received.

Dirty Coast Connection

Hearn's outsider-turned-insider spirit is exactly the Be A New Orleanian Wherever You Are ethos. Our Periodic Table of New Orleans celebrates the same cultural elements Hearn catalogued 150 years ago.