
1850—1852 Greece
1848 | Charles Bush Hearn, an Irish surgeon in the British army, is sent to Greek island of Kythira, where he meets Rosa Cassimati. |
1849 | Charles and Rosa elope to the nearby island of Lefkada. |
1850 | Patrick Lafcadio Hearn is born on 27 June. |
1852—1861 Ireland

1861 France
1861 | Lafcadio attends a church school in Normandy, France. He is said to have mastered French during this time, however, this is not certain. Catherine Elwood, his aunt living in Cong, dies. Charles’ second wife, Alicia, dies of malaria in India. |
1862 | Elizabeth, Lafcadio’s grandmother, dies at the age of 71. |
1863—1868 England
1869—1877 Cincinnati, USA
1869 | He travels from London in England or Le Havre in France to New York, America in an immigration boat. Hearn spends the first several years in Cincinnati in extreme poverty. Meets Henry Watkin. |
1872 | Publishes his first article in the Cincinnati Enquirer. |
1874 | Becomes a regular member at the Enquirer. |
1875 | Marries Alethea (Mattie) Foley, a Creole woman, miscegenation law gets him fired by the Enquirer, but he is hired by the Cincinnati Commercial. |
1877—1887 New Orleans, USA
1877 | Separates from Mattie and leaves for New Orleans. |
1878 | Hearn becomes a regular staff member at Daily City Item. |
1879 | Hearn opens a 5 cents restaurant “The Hard Times” (160 Dryades Street), but closes only after 20 days as his partner runs away with the takings. |
1881 | Becomes literary editor at the Times Democrat. |
1882 | His mother Rosa dies on 12 December at the National Mental Asylum in Corfu, Greece. Elizabeth Bisland joins the Times Democrat, interested in Hearn’s article. He starts to interact with a young doctor Rudolph Matas. |
1885 | New Orleans World Exposition is held and three books introducing New Orleans are published; Gombo Zebes, Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans, La Cuisine Creole. |
1887 | Stays on Grand Isle and writes Chita, Some Chinese Ghosts. |
1887—1890 Martinique, West Indies
1887 | Hearn travels to Martinique, the West Indies to write for Harper’s, where he stays for two years. |
1889 | Hearn arranges to visit Japan to write articles for Harper’s. |
1890 | Hearn leaves New York on 8 March for Japan. |
1890—1904 Japan
1890 | Hearn arrives in Yokohama on 4 April; cancels the contract with Harper’s; Basil Hall Chamberlain finds him a teaching job in a Matsue Middle School. |
1891 | Starts to live with Setsu Koizumi. In November he moves to Kumamoto to teach English at Kumamoto Fifth High School. |
1893 | His first son Kazuo is born. |
1894 | Moves with his family to Kobe to work for the Kobe Chronicle. Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. |
1896 | Becomes a Japanese citizen and formally adopts the Japanese name “Koizumi Yakumo”; moves to Tokyo and becomes a professor of literature at Tokyo Imperial University. |
1897 | His second son, Iwao, is born. |
1899 | His third son Kiyoshi, is born. |
1903 | Tokyo University revokes Hearn’s foreigner’s salary. Hearn’s one daughter, Suzuko, is born. |
1904 | Hearn assumes the post of lecture at Waseda University. Kwaidan. (age 54) Hearn dies of heart failure in Tokyo on 26 September. Japan—An Interpretation. |