American Diary of a Japanese Girl

"Yone Noguchi was an enormously important figure in the early twentieth-century cross-cultural and cross-literary interaction between not only Japan and the US but also Japan and Britain...Laura Franey's careful introduction and Edward Marx's well-conceived and knowledgeable afterword frame The American Diary precisely in terms that will define for contemporary readers its importance as cultural history." David Ewick, Chuo University "A literary curiosity, it offers Noguchi's insights on Japanese culture and American mores and manners, and through these, the actual conditions under which he lived his expatriate life." Japan Times "There are many very beautiful poetic moments in the novel that show the author's eventual status as a celebrated poet. The book captures a moment in time that is both innocent yet reveals some of the underlying differences that would culminate in the Pacific theater of World War II forty years after the book was published." The Asian Review of Books on the Web "The Diary, with its whimsical English, is a delight; upon re-reading (with attention to editors Edward Mark and Laura E. Franey's comprehensive notes) it gains greatly as a unique, highly perceptive commentary on cultural differences. Genjiro Yeto's illustrations (from 1902) are a grace note." ForeWord October 07 "The work remains a charming, sly, remarkable volume. ...If Noguchi's Diary seems delightfully strange now, imagine how it was received by contemporary reviewers, though many found it at least light and entertaining. In any event, Noguchi's book is worth reissuing and--cultural studies professors take note--rereading in this annotated edition. It has a rightful place among other East-West cross-cultural exchanges..." The American Book Review

• 1. Introduction: Biographical, Historical, and Literary Contexts, by Laura Franey; 2. The American Diary of a Japanese Girl, by Yone Noguchi; 3. Afterword: Publication, Reception, and Genre, by Edward Marx