Editing Lafcadio Hearn (section)

===Early life===
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn was born on 27 June 1850 on the [[Ionian Islands|Ionian Island]] of [[Lefkada]], then part of a [[British protectorate]], the [[United States of the Ionian Islands]], now part of Greece.<ref name="BISLAND">{{cite book |last=Bisland |first=Elizabeth |url= |title=The life and letters of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin |year=1906 |isbn=9781115291613 |volume=1 |location=Boston |pages=3}}</ref> His mother was a [[Greeks|Greek]] named Rosa Cassimati, a native of the Greek island of [[Kythera]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hirakawa |first=Sukehiro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfV5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Lafcadio Hearn in International Perspectives |date=2007-03-29 |publisher=[[Global Oriental]] |isbn=978-90-04-21347-0 |pages=17, 125 |language=en}}</ref> while his father, [[Royal Army Medical Corps#Officer ranks|Staff Surgeon of the Second Class]] Charles Bush Hearn, a [[British Army]] medical officer, was of [[Irish people|Irish]] and [[English people|English]] descent,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Kennard|first=Nina H.|url=http://archive.org/details/lafcadiohearn01kenn|title=Lafcadio Hearn|date=1912|publisher=New York, D. Appleton and Company|others=The Library of Congress|pages=2}}</ref> who was stationed in Lefkada during the British protectorate of the United States of the Ionian Islands. Throughout his life, Lafcadio boasted of his Greek blood and felt a passionate connection to Greece.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marra|first=Michael F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_P330pBK2PoC&pg=PA136|title=A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics|date=2001-02-01|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2399-3|pages=136|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Babb|first=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J9J7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA195|title=Receptions of Greek and Roman Antiquity in East Asia|date=2019-01-04|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-37071-5|pages=195|language=en}}</ref> He was baptized Patrikios Lefcadios Hearn ([[Greek language|Greek]]: Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χερν) in the [[Greek Orthodox Church]], but he seems to have been called "Patrick Lefcadio Kassimati Charles Hearn" in English; the middle name "Lafcadio" was given to him in honour of the island where he was born.<ref name=KENNARD>According to one of his biographers, a family Bible records 'Patricio Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn, August 1850.' {{cite book | title = Lafcadio Hearn | url = https://archive.org/details/lafcadiohearn01kenn | last=Kennard | first=Nina H.|location= New York | publisher= D. Appleton and Co.| year=1912}}</ref> Hearn's parents were married in a Greek Orthodox ceremony on 25 November 1849, several months after his mother had given birth to Hearn's older brother, George Robert Hearn, on 24 July 1849. George died on 17 August 1850, two months after Lafcadio's birth.<ref name="COTT">{{cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |location=New York |pages=11 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

====Emigration to Ireland and abandonment====
[[File:Commemorative plaque to Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), 48 Gardiner Street Lower, Dublin, Ireland. Detail.JPG|thumb|Plaque on Hearn's home on [[Gardiner Street]], [[Dublin]]]]
Hearn's father Charles in 1850 was reassigned from Lefkada to the [[British West Indies]]. Since his family did not approve of the marriage, and because he was worried that his relationship might harm his career prospects, Charles did not inform his superiors of his son or pregnant wife and left his family behind. In 1852, he arranged to send his son and wife to live with his family in [[Dublin]], where they received a cool reception. Charles's Protestant mother, Elizabeth Holmes Hearn, had difficulty accepting Rosa's Greek Orthodox views and lack of education; she was illiterate and spoke no English. Rosa found it difficult to adapt to a foreign culture and the Protestantism of her husband's family, and was eventually taken under the wing of Elizabeth's sister, Sarah Holmes Brenane, a widow who had converted to Catholicism.

Despite Sarah's efforts, Rosa suffered from homesickness. When her husband returned to Ireland on medical leave in 1853, it became clear that the couple had become estranged. Charles Hearn was assigned to the [[Crimean Peninsula]], again leaving his pregnant wife and child in Ireland. When he came back in 1856, severely wounded and traumatized, Rosa had returned to her home island of [[Cerigo]] (Kythera), where she gave birth to their third son, Daniel James Hearn. Lafcadio had been left in the care of Sarah Brenane.

Charles petitioned to have the marriage with Rosa annulled, on the grounds that she had not signed their marriage contract, which made it invalid under English law. After being informed of the annulment, Rosa almost immediately married Giovanni Cavallini, a Greek citizen of Italian ancestry, who was later appointed by the British as governor of [[Cerigotto]] (Antikythera). Cavallini required as a condition of the marriage that Rosa give up custody of both sons. As a result, James was sent to his father in Dublin while Lafcadio remained in the care of his great aunt, Sarah Brenane, who had disinherited Charles because of the annulment. Neither Lafcadio nor James ever again saw their mother, who had four children with her second husband. Rosa was eventually committed to the National Mental Asylum on [[Corfu]], where she died in 1882.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=14–15 |language= |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Charles Hearn, who had left Lafcadio in the care of Sarah Brenane for the past four years, now appointed her as Lafcadio's permanent guardian. He married his childhood sweetheart, Alicia Goslin, in July 1857, and left with his new wife for a posting in [[Secunderabad]], a city in India, where they had three daughters prior to Alicia's death in 1861.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mikXAQAAMAAJ |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |date=1991 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |pages=17 |language=en |quote="(Hearn, who had three daughters with Alicia, died of malaria in the Gulf of Suez on November 21, 1866.)" |url-access=registration}}</ref> Lafcadio never saw his father again: Charles Hearn died of malaria in the [[Gulf of Suez]] in 1866.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=17–18 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 1857, at age seven and despite the fact that both his parents were still alive, Hearn became the permanent [[Ward (law)|ward]] of Sarah Brenane. She divided her residency between Dublin in the winter months, and her husband's estate at [[Tramore]], [[County Waterford]], on the southern Irish coast, and a house at [[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]] in North Wales. Brenane engaged a tutor during the school year to provide Hearn with basic instruction and the rudiments of Catholic dogma. Hearn began exploring Brenane's library and read extensively in Greek literature, especially myths.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=18–20 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

====Catholic education and more abandonment====
[[File:Ye Giglampz.jpg|thumb|The first issue of ''Ye Giglampz'', a satirical weekly published in 1874 by Hearn and Henry Farny]]
In 1861, his great aunt, aware that Hearn was turning away from Catholicism and at the urging of Henry Hearn Molyneux, a relative of her late husband, he was sent to a Catholic college in France, but was disgusted with the life and gave up the Roman Catholic faith. He became fluent in French and would later translate into English the works of [[Guy de Maupassant]] and [[Gustave Flaubert]].

In 1863, again at the suggestion of Molyneux, Hearn was enrolled at [[St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw]], a Catholic [[seminary]] in [[County Durham]], England. In this environment, Hearn adopted the nickname "Paddy" to try to fit in better, and was the top student in English composition for three years.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=26 |url-access=registration}}</ref> At age 16, while at Ushaw, Hearn injured his left eye. The eye became infected and, despite consultations with specialists in Dublin and London, and a year spent out of school convalescing, the eye went blind. Hearn also suffered from severe [[myopia]], so his injury left him permanently with poor vision, requiring him to carry a magnifying glass for close work and a pocket telescope to see anything beyond a short distance. Hearn avoided eyeglasses, believing they would weaken his vision further. The iris was permanently discoloured, and left Hearn self-conscious about his appearance for the rest of his life, causing him to cover his left eye while conversing and always posing for the camera in profile so that the left eye was not visible.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bisland |first=Elizabeth |title=The life and letters of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin |year=1906 |isbn=9781115291613 |volume=1 |location=Boston |pages=35}}</ref>

In 1867, Henry Molyneux, who had become Sarah Brenane's financial manager, went bankrupt, along with Brenane. As there was no money for tuition, Hearn was sent to London's East End to live with Brenane's former maid. She and her husband had little time or money for Hearn, who wandered the streets, spent time in workhouses, and generally lived an aimless, rootless existence. His main intellectual activities consisted of visits to libraries and the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=29–30 |url-access=registration}}</ref>