Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn was an internationally known writer, best known for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories. Hearn moved to New Orleans in 1877 and spent a decade there. His writings for national magazines such as Harper's Weekly and Scribner's Magazine helped create the city's popular reputation as a place with a distinctive culture more akin to that of Europe and the Caribbean than to the rest of North America. Although he was not a cook and lived in boarding houses during his stay in New Orleans, Hearn agreed to edit the cookbook in exchange for publication of another of his works.