Now famous as a medieval savant, author of "The Wandering Scholars" and "Medieval Latin Lyrics," Helen Waddell (1889-1965) was born in Japan and her first writings were about this country. The well-known later works have obscured these early beginnings, but they remained important to the author -- all that was left of a strange and satisfying childhood.
Later she was to say that "the richest thing in my life has been Japan." She added a qualifying phrase ("outside books, I mean"), but the affection for the country was defining. When she was 3 and suffering from typhoid, her father, it is said, was only able to revive his infant daughter by speaking to her in Japanese.
This he was able to do because he was a Presbyterian minister and quite used to preaching in the local language. There is a report of his doing so in Ueno Park, across town from where the Waddells then lived. One of the gathered Japanese said: "His grammar is not correct. No foreigner can use properly the particles in Japanese grammar." "But," said his companion, "he is very honest. Wait a little, let us hear him longer." In an unpublished autobiographical essay, Helen called her father "the vicar of Wakefield turned Chinese scholar."
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