Far Away and Long Ago

CreateSpace Independent Publ, 1918. Paperback. Good. W.H. Hudson, in full William Henry Hudson (born August 4, 1841, near Buenos Aires, Argentina-died August 18, 1922, London, England), British author, n aturalist, and ornithologist, best known for his exotic romances, especiall y Green Mansions.Hudson's parents were originally New Englanders who took u p sheep farming in Argentina. He spent his childhood-lovingly recalled in F ar Away and Long Ago (1918)-freely roaming the pampas, studying the plant a nd animal life, and observing both natural and human dramas on what was the n a lawless frontier. After an illness at 15 permanently affected his healt h, he became introspective and studious; his reading of Charles Darwin's Or igin of Species, which confirmed his own observations of nature, had a part icularly strong impact. After his parents' death, he led a wandering life. Little is known of this period or of his early years in England, where he s ettled in 1869 (and was naturalized in 1900). Poverty and ill-health may ha ve occasioned his marriage in 1876 to a woman much older than himself. He a nd his wife lived precariously on the proceeds of two boardinghouses, until she inherited a house in the Bayswater section of London, where Hudson spe nt the rest of his life.His early books, romances with a South American set ting, are weak in characterization but imbued with a brooding sense of natu re's power. Although Hudson's reputation now rests chiefly on these novels, when published they attracted little attention. The first, The Purple Land that England Lost, 2 vol. (1885), was followed by several long short stori es, collected in 1902 as El Ombú. His last romance, Green Mansions (1904),