Lindley Williams Hubbell papers, 1933-2005

Lindley Williams Hubbell, poet, translator, and expatriate, was born to a well-to-do family in Hartford, Connecticut on the 3rd of June, 1901.

Hubbell's formal education was brief. He dropped out of Hartford High School after two years and was subsequently educated by private tutors in Greek, Latin and Provencal. Having an affinity for languages, Hubbell later learned German, French, and Italian from a polyglot aunt.

Hubbell spent the bulk of his American career, from 1925-1946, as a reference librarian at the New York Public Library. He would rely on his skills in library sciences later in his life, during his initial time living in Japan.

Hubbell received a Yale Younger Poets award in 1927, and his books of poetry were published by major publishers in the US. He was an early admirer of Gertrude Stein; he corresponded with her and wrote an article defending her first early novels. He was a regular companion of Stein's during her 1934 trip to New York City.

Though Hubbell never went to university, from 1946-1953 he was the Head of the Literature Department at Randall School in Hartford, Connecticut, where he taught the history of drama, Shakespeare, Ibsen and Modern Poetry.

In 1953, after the death of a cousin and the consequent inheritance he received, Hubbell moved to Japan and began to work as a cataloger at the library in Daitokuji Temple. This would lead to his professorship at Doshisha University and later to his becoming a Japanese citizen (1960). Once he had taken Japanese citizenship, Hubbell never again left Japan and officially changed his name to the Japanese, Shuseki Hayashi.

Hubbell was an admirer of Nô drama and saw 186 out of the extant 240 plays, 849 performances in all. He helped translate Kadensho (secret teachings on Nô performance) by Zeami (1363 - 1443), published by the foundation of Sumiya-Shinobe Scholoarship (1968). He also dedicated himself to Shinto, especially to the beauty of its ceremonies and rituals, its music and dance.

In 1970 Hubbell, along with his friends and fellow scholars Hisao Kanaseki and Yoko Danno, established a non-profit, private press known as the Ikuta Press. Through this Hubbell published 16 volumes of his own poetry and prose.

Hubbell retired from Doshisha in 1970 and went on to teach at Mukogawa Women's University in Nishinomiya until the age of 86. He continued to write throughout his later life. Lindley Williams Hubbell passed away in 1994 in the Kunishima Hospital in Kyoto.

A memorial stone was installed by his former students, friends and colleagues in the precincts of Kannon-ji Temple in Oh-yamazaki, Kyoto.