Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a uniquely international literary star: born in in the Greek isles to a British military surgeon, he grew up in Ireland, France, and Ohio—with stops along the way in Louisiana and the Caribbean—before finally settling in Japan. It is this last destination that brought him his most lasting acclaim.

Kwaidan presents the complete text of Hearn’s classic 1903 book of Japanese ghost stories, collected during travels in his adopted homeland and presented in English for consumption by Western audiences. This edition pairs the original stories with twenty-eight photographs from celebrated photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, as well as an introduction from horror expert Paul Murray. Watanabe’s photographs provide illumination and illustration for these eerie tales. This new edition of a classic text is likely to appeal to worldwide fans of Japanese folklore, supernatural stories, and contemporary photography.

Lafcadio Hearn was a journalist and author best known for his collections of Japanese legends, his books of reportage on New Orleans, and his translations of nineteenth-century French literature. Hiroshi Watanabe is a California-based photographer born in Japan. His works are in the permanent collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, George Eastman House, and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.