Hudson, William Henry (1841-1922), was an English author and naturalist. Hudson grew up in Argentina. Most of his books are reports of personal experiences in bird watching and nature study in the remote regions of South America. Hudson wrote these works in an intimate, semiautobiographical style. His best-known book is Green Mansions (1904), a romantic novel about a mysterious girl who lives in the jungles of South America.
Hudson was born on Aug. 4, 1841, to American parents in Quilmes, Argentina, near Buenos Aires. He settled in England about 1869, and became a British citizen in 1900. Hudson’s first book, the novel The Purple Land (1885), and his autobiography, Far Away and Long Ago (1918), are vivid accounts of life in Argentina. Both helped familiarize European and North American readers with the landscape and history of South America. He died on Aug. 18, 1922.
