G.R. Thompson is Professor of English at Purdue University. He has published several studies of Edgar Allan Poe, including Poe's Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales, Essays and Reviews of Edgar Allan Poe, Romantic Arabesque, Contemporary Theory, and Postmodernism and the Library of America edition of Poe's Essays and Reviews.
Lafcadio Hearn was one of the first great interpreters of things Japanese for Western readers. His keen intellect, poetic imagination and clear style have ensured him a devoted readership for more than a century.