Editing Lafcadio Hearn (section)

===Move to New Orleans===
[[File:Alligators 1880-09-13.jpg|left|thumb|Alligators: Cartoon published in ''New Orleans Daily Item'' on 13 September 1880]]
During the autumn of 1877, recently divorced from Mattie Foley and restless, Hearn had begun neglecting his newspaper work in favor of translating works by the French author [[Théophile Gautier]] into English. He had grown disenchanted with Cincinnati, writing to Henry Watkin, "It is time for a fellow to get out of Cincinnati when they begin to call it the Paris of America." With the support of Watkin and ''Cincinnati Commercial'' publisher [[Murat Halstead]], Hearn left Cincinnati for [[New Orleans]], where he initially wrote dispatches on the "Gateway to the Tropics" for the ''Commercial''.

Hearn lived in New Orleans for nearly a decade, writing first for the newspaper ''Daily City Item'' beginning in June 1878, and later for the ''Times Democrat''. Since the ''Item'' was a 4-page publication, Hearn's editorial work changed the character of the newspaper dramatically. He began at the ''Item'' as a news editor, expanding to include book reviews of [[Bret Harte]] and [[Émile Zola]], summaries of pieces in national magazines such as ''[[Harper's Weekly|Harper's]]'', and editorial pieces introducing Buddhism and Sanskrit writings. As editor, Hearn created and published nearly two hundred woodcuts of daily life and people in New Orleans, making the ''Item'' the first Southern newspaper to introduce cartoons and giving the paper an immediate boost in circulation. Hearn gave up carving the woodcuts after six months when he found the strain was too great for his eye.<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=134 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[File:Hearn House NOLA Cleveland Front.jpg|right|thumb|Hearn's former home on Cleveland Avenue in [[New Orleans]] is preserved as a registered historic place.]]

At the end of 1881, Hearn took an editorial position with the New Orleans ''[[The Times-Picayune|Times Democrat]]'' and was employed translating items from French and Spanish newspapers as well as writing editorials and cultural reviews on topics of his choice. He also continued his work translating French authors into English: [[Gérard de Nerval]], [[Anatole France]], and most notably [[Pierre Loti]], an author who influenced Hearn's own writing style.<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=130–131 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Milton Bronner, who edited Hearn's letters to [[Henry Watkin]], wrote: "[T]he Hearn of New Orleans was the father of the Hearn of the West Indies and of Japan," and this view was endorsed by Norman Foerster.<ref>Norman Foerster (1934), ''American Poetry and Prose'', Revised and Enlarged Edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, p. 1149; Hearn, Lafcadio (1907), ''Letters from the Raven: Being the Correspondence of Lafcadio Hearn with [[Henry Watkin]]'', ed., Milton Bronner, New York: [[Brentano's]].</ref> During his tenure at the ''Times Democrat'', Hearn developed a friendship with editor Page Baker, who went on to champion Hearn's literary career; their correspondence is archived at the [[Loyola University New Orleans]] Special Collections & Archives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lafcadio Hearn Correspondence Finding Aid |url=http://library.loyno.edu/assets/handouts/archives/Collection_5_Hearn.pdf |website=J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans |access-date=16 July 2018 |archive-date=8 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180608172636/http://library.loyno.edu/assets/handouts/archives/Collection_5_Hearn.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The vast number of his writings about New Orleans and its environs, many of which have not been collected, include the city's [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]] population and distinctive cuisine, the French Opera, and [[Louisiana Voodoo]]. Hearn wrote enthusiastically of New Orleans, but also wrote of the city's decay, "a dead bride crowned with orange flowers".<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=118 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Hearn's writings for national publications, such as ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' and ''[[Scribner's Magazine]]'', helped create the popular reputation of New Orleans as a place with a distinctive culture more akin to that of Europe and the Caribbean than to the rest of North America. Hearn's best-known Louisiana works include: 
* ''Gombo zhèbes: Little dictionary of Creole proverbs'' (1885)
* ''La Cuisine Créole'' (1885), a collection of culinary recipes from leading chefs and noted Creole housewives who helped make New Orleans famous for its cuisine
* ''Chita: A Memory of Last Island'' (1889), a novella based on the [[1856 Last Island Hurricane|hurricane of 1856]] first published in ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's Monthly]]'' in 1888

Hearn published in ''Harper's Weekly'' the first known written article (1883) about [[Filipino American#History|Filipinos in the United States]], the Manilamen or [[Tagalog people|Tagalogs]], one of whose villages he had visited at [[Saint Malo, Louisiana|Saint Malo]], southeast of [[Lake Borgne]] in [[St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana]].

At the time he lived there, Hearn was little known, and even now he is little known for his writing about New Orleans, except by local cultural devotees. However, more books have been written about him than any former resident of New Orleans except [[Louis Armstrong]].<ref>{{cite news | title = A chronicle of Creole cuisine | url = http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/side/4544683.html | location = Houston| date= 14 February 2007 | author= Peggy Grodinsky|newspaper = Chronicle}}.</ref>

Hearn's writings for the New Orleans newspapers included impressionistic descriptions of places and characters and many editorials denouncing political corruption, street crime, violence, intolerance, and the failures of public health and hygiene officials. Despite the fact that he is credited with "inventing" New Orleans as an exotic and mysterious place, his obituaries of the [[Louisiana voodoo|vodou]] leaders [[Marie Laveau]] and Doctor John Montenet are matter-of-fact and debunking. Selections of Hearn's New Orleans writings have been collected and published in several works, starting with ''Creole Sketches''<ref>{{cite book | title= Creole Sketches | url= https://archive.org/details/creolesketches017017mbp | author = Lafcadio Hearn | editor = Charles Woodward Hutson | location = Boston | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Co. | year=1924|oclc= 2403347}}</ref> in 1924, and more recently in ''Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn.''<ref>{{cite book| last = Starr| first= S. Frederick |year=2001| title = Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn| publisher= University Press of Mississippi | isbn=1-57806-353-1}}</ref>