Hudson, William Henry

Related Category: English Literature, 19th cent.: Biographies

1841–1922, English author and naturalist, b. Buenos Aires of American parents. He spent his childhood on the pampas but developed a heart condition and finally emigrated to England in 1870. Hudson was a sensitive observer of nature, particularly of birds. In his books he describes plants and animals in a highly personal manner with great force and beauty. His best-known work, Green Mansions (1904), is a romance set in a South American jungle. Included among his other works are The Purple Land (1885), The Naturalist in La Plata (1892), A Shepherd's Life (1910), Far Away and Long Ago (1918), and A Hind in Richmond Park (1922).

See A. D. Ronner, W. H. Hudson: The Man, the Novelist, the Naturalist (1986); bibliography by G. F. Wilson (1922, repr. 1968).