William Henry Hudson

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William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson
Born August 4, 1841
Quilmes Partido ,Buenos Aires Province, Argentina,
Died August 18, 1922
Worthing), West Sussex, England
Nationality United Kingdom
Fields naturalist
ornithologist
Known for Green Mansions

William Henry Hudson (August 4, 1841 – August 18, 1922) was an author, naturalist and ornithologist.

Hudson was born in the Quilmes Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, son of settlers of U.S. origin. He spent his youth studying the local flora and fauna and observing both natural and human dramas on what was then a lawless frontier, publishing his ornithological work in Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society, initially in an English mingled with Spanish idioms.

He settled in England during 1869. He produced a series of ornithological studies, including Argentine Ornithology (1888-1899) and British Birds (1895), and later achieved fame with his books on the English countryside, including Hampshire Days (1903), Afoot in England (1909) and A Shepherd's Life (1910) which helped foster the back-to-nature movement of the 1920s and 1930s.

He was a founding member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

His best known novel is Green Mansions (1904), and his best known non-fiction is Far Away and Long Ago (1918).

In Argentina he is considered to belong to the national literature as Guillermo Enrique Hudson, the Spanish version of his name. A town in Berazategui Partido and several other public places and institutions are named after him.

Towards the end of his life he moved to the town of Worthing in Sussex, England. His grave is in Broadwater (part of Worthing), West Sussex, England.

[edit] Works

  • The Purple Land that England Lost. Travels and Adventures in the Banda Oriental, South America (1885)
  • A Crystal Age (1887)
  • Argentine Ornithology (1888)
  • Fan-The Story of a Young Girl's Life (1892) as Henry Harford
  • The Naturalist in la Plata (1892)
  • Idle Days in Patagonia (1893)
  • Birds in a Village (1893)
  • Lost British Birds (1894) pamphlet
  • British Birds (1895)
  • Osprey; or, Egrets and Aigrettes (1896)
  • Birds in London (1898)
  • Nature in Downland (1900)
  • Birds and Man (1901)
  • El Ombu (1902) stories, later South American Sketches.
  • Hampshire Days (1903)
  • Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest (1904)
  • A Little Boy Lost (1905)
  • Land's End. A Naturalist's Impressions in West Cornwall (1908)
  • Afoot in England (1909)
  • A Shepherd's Life: Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs (1910)
  • Adventures Among Birds (1913)
  • Tales of the Pampas (1916)
  • The Book of a Naturalist (1919)
  • Birds in Town and Village (1919)
  • Birds of La Plata (1920) two volumes
  • Dead Man's Plack and An Old Thorn (1920)
  • A Traveller in Little Things (1921)
  • Tired Traveller (1921) essay
  • Seagulls In London. Why They Took To Coming To Town (1922) essay
  • Hind in Richmond Park (1922)
  • The Collected Works (1922-23) 24 volumes
  • 153 Letters from W.H. Hudson (Nonesuch Press. 1923) edited by Edward Garnett
  • Rare Vanishing & Lost British Birds (1923)
  • Ralph Herne (1923)
  • Men, Books and Birds (1925)
  • The Disappointed Squirrel (1925) from The Book of a Naturalist.
  • Mary's Little Lamb (1929)
  • South American Romances (1930) The Purple Land; Green Mansions; El Ombú
  • Far Away and Long Ago - A History of My Early Life (1918)
  • W.H. Hudson's Letters to R. B. Cunninghame Graham (Golden Cockerel Press 1941)
  • Tales of the Gauchos (1946)
  • Letters on the ornithology of Buenos Ayres.(1951) edited by David W. Dewar
  • Diary Concerning his Voyage from Buenos Aires to Southampton on the Ebro (1958)
  • Gauchos of the Pampas and Their Horses (1963) stories, with R.B. Cunninghame Graham
  • English Birds and Green Places: Selected Writings (1964) ISBN 0-575-07207-5
  • Birds of A Feather: Unpublished Letters of W.H. Hudson (1981) edited by D. Shrubsall


[edit] References

  • G. F. Wilson (1922, 1968) Bibliography of the Writings of W.H. Hudson
  • Morley Roberts (1924) W. H. Hudson
  • Robert Hamilton (1946) W. H. Hudson:The Vision of Earth
  • John T. Frederick (1972) William Henry Hudson
  • John R. Payne (1977) W. H. Hudson. a Bibliography
  • D. Shrubsall (1978) W. H. Hudson, Writer and Naturalist
  • Ruth Tomalin (1982) W. H. Hudson - a biography
  • Amy D. Ronner (1986) W. H. Hudson: The Man, The Novelist, The Naturalist
  • Felipe Arocena (2003) William Henry Hudson: Life, Literature and Science

[edit] External links