William Henry Hudson (4 August 1841 – 18 August 1922) – known in Argentina as Guillermo Enrique Hudson – was an
Anglo-Argentine author,
naturalist and
ornithologist.
Life
Hudson was the son of Daniel Hudson and his wife Catherine (), United States settlers of English and Irish origin. He was born and lived his first years in a small
estancia called "25
Ombues" in what is now Ingeniero Allan,
Florencio Varela, Argentina.
In 1846 the family established a ''
pulpería'' further south, in the surroundings of
Chascomús, not far from the lake of the same name. In this natural environment, Hudson spent his youth studying the local
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...
and
fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...
and observing both natural and human dramas on what was then a lawless frontier, while publishing his ornithological work in ''Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society'' initially in an English mingled with Spanish idioms. He had a special love for
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
.
Hudson emigrated to England in 1874, taking up residence at St Luke's Road in
Bayswater, where he continued to live for most of his life; in 1876 he married his landlady, the former singer Emily Wingrave, in Kensington, London.
[ One of the daughters of John Hanmer Wingrave, she was some eleven years older than Hudson, having been born on 22 December 1829. He supported himself as a writer and journalist; the couple had no children. Hudson himself was naturalized as a British subject on 4 July 1900.
Hudson was a friend of the late-19th century English author ]George Gissing
George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include '' The Nether World'' (1889), '' New Gr ...
, whom he met in 1889. They corresponded until the latter's death in 1903, occasionally exchanging their publications, discussing literary and scientific matters, and commenting on their respective access to books and newspapers, a matter of supreme importance to Gissing.
In 1911 Emily Hudson became an invalid and moved to Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...
in Sussex. After that, Hudson lived apart from her "for reasons of his own health", although it is clear from their abundant surviving correspondence that he visited her frequently and they remained on affectionate terms.[
Hudson died on 18 August 1922, at 40, St Luke’s Road, Westbourne Park, Bayswater,][“HUDSON William Henry of at 40 St Luke’s-road Westbourne Park died 18 August 1922” in ''Wills and Administrations (England and Wales) 1922'', p. 267] and was buried in Broadwater and Worthing Cemetery, Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...
, on 22 August 1922, next to his wife, who had died early in 1921.
Hudson left an estate valued at £8225, and his Executors were the publisher Ernest Bell and Wynnard Hooper, a journalist.[
]
Books
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 and was set in Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
.
Hudson's best-known novel is '' Green Mansions'' (1904), which was adapted into a a film starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins, and his best-known non-fiction is ''Far Away and Long Ago'' (1918), which was also made into a film.
Scientific views
Hudson was an advocate of Lamarckian
Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...
evolution. He was a critic of Darwinism and defended vitalism
Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
. He was influenced by the non-Darwinian evolutionary writings of Samuel Butler. He was an early member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment thr ...
.
Recognition and awards
The Hudson Memorial Bird Sanctuary in Hyde Park, London includes a carved stone memorial by Sir Jacob Epstein representing Rima, the child goddess of nature, who featured in Hudson's novel ''Green Mansions''. The engravings are by the designer Eric Gill.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
referred to Hudson's '' The Purple Land'' (1885) in his novel ''The Sun Also Rises
''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the b ...
'', and to ''Far Away and Long Ago'' in his posthumous novel '' The Garden of Eden'' (1986). He listed ''Far Away and Long Ago'' in a suggested reading list for a young writer.
James Rebanks' 2015 book '' The Shepherd's Life'' about a Lake District farmer was inspired by Hudson's work of the same name: "But even more than Orwell or Hemingway, W.H. Hudson turned me into a book obsessive ..." (p. 115), and: "One day, I pulled ''A Shepherd's Life'' by W.H. Hudson from the bookcase ...and the sudden life-changing realization it gave me that we could be in books – great books." (p. 114)
In Argentina, Hudson is considered to belong to the national literature as ''Guillermo Enrique Hudson'', the Spanish version of his name. A town in Berazategui Partido
Berazategui is a Partidos of Buenos Aires, partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. With an area of and a population of 320,224 (), it is at the southeast of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conglomerate, and its capital is Berazategui city.
I ...
and several other public places and institutions are named after him. The town of Hudson in Buenos Aires Province is named for him.
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), with a chapter by Frank Evers Beddard
*''Osprey;'' or, ''Egrets and Aigrettes'' (1896)
*''Birds in London'' (1898)
*''Nature in Downland'' (1900)
*''Birds and Man'' (1901)
*''El Ombú'' (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)Golden Cockerel Press
The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 1920 and 1961.
History
The private press made handmade limited editions of classic works. The type was hand-set and the books were printed on handmade paper, and sometimes ...
1941; about R. B. Cunninghame Graham)
*''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)
*''Birds of A Feather: Unpublished Letters of W.H. Hudson'' (1981), edited by D. Shrubsall
*''Landscapes and Literati: Unpublished letters of W.H. Hudson and George Gissing'' (1985), edited by Dennis Shrubsall and Pierre Coustillas
Bibliographies
* G. F. Wilson (1922, 1968) ''Bibliography of the Writings of W.H. Hudson''
* John R. Payne (1977) ''W.H. Hudson. a Bibliography''
Biographies
* Morley Roberts (1924) ''W.H. Hudson''
* Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
(1937) ''Portraits from Life''
* Robert Hamilton (1946) ''W.H. Hudson:The Vision of Earth''
* Richard E. Haymaker (1954) ''From Pampas to Hedgerows and Downs: A Study of W. H. Hudson''
* Alicia Jurado (1971) ''Vida y obra de W.H. Hudson''
* John T. Frederick (1972) ''William Henry Hudson''
* 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''
* David Miller (1990) ''W.H. Hudson and the Elusive Paradise''[
* Felipe Arocena (2003) ''William Henry Hudson: Life, Literature and Science''
* Jason Wilson: ''Living in the sound of the wind'', Personal Quest For W. H. Hudson, Naturalist And Writer From The River Plate London : Constable, 2016
]
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
''Tales of the Pampas (El Ombú and Other Stories)''
illustrated 1939.
*
Reserva Hudson
*Archival Material at
*
The Papers of William Henry Hudson
at Dartmouth College Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, William Henry
1841 births
1922 deaths
19th-century Argentine writers
19th-century English novelists
20th-century Argentine male writers
20th-century English novelists
Argentine male novelists
Argentine ornithologists
Argentine emigrants to England
Argentine naturalists
Argentine people of American descent
Argentine people of English descent
Argentine people of Irish descent
English ornithologists
English people of American descent
English people of Irish descent
Lamarckism
People from Quilmes
Victorian novelists
Vitalists