Word: lafcadio
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...enlisted in the British army in World War I and was taken prisoner on the Marne. The horrors of the trenches made him want to flee Europe altogether. In prison camp, he found books on Eastern civilization by Ernest Fenollosa and Lafcadio Hearn; at war's end, he enrolled at the Slade School in London and took classes in Japanese and Mandarin. In 1929, penniless, he managed to reach Shanghai. For the next few years he was able to study Chinese art and writing at first hand, painting landscapes and street scenes (none of which survive), getting...
...epicenter of hedonism is New Orleans -- and, just for the record, no one from there ever called the place the Big Easy or pronounced its name "N'Awlins." The late 19th century writer Lafcadio Hearn rhapsodized about the city's sensuality -- "her nights of magical moonlight, and her days of dreamy languors and perfumes." He was even moved to compare its delicious decadence to "a dead bride crowned with orange flowers -- a dead face that asked for a kiss." Actually, the place is a lot livelier than that. It is a seething agglomeration of jazz halls, Zydeco joints...