The return of his brother, Edwin, from the United States gave Hudson the chance to discover the works of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, whose ideas about natural selection and evolution were disturbing the intellectual circles of the nineteenth century. Hudson came to grips with the evil and apparently senseless aspect of nature and like Abel, the hero of Green Mansions, Hudson saw the high hopes for a happy future shattered quickly by blind fate. His heart was permanently damaged, and he would never be able to lead a strenuous life. The illnesses which Hudson had faced caused in the youth a severe psychological and philosophical shock.
His mother slowly nursed him back to health, but her constant devotion probably contributed to her own decline in physical strength and her death in 18 59. Shortly thereafter, the boy of fifteen was attacked by typhus, and before he recovered, he was stricken with rheumatic fever. Hudson, however, was suddenly and rudely awakened to the realities of life when his family suffered financial reverses which required moving to a more modest home. For example, the young Hudson early sensed in his strong imagination the appeal of trees - the "green mansions" of his novel. Until 1856, then, he lived on two ranches where the observation of nature stimulated him toward the career of a naturalist and where he likewise formed many of his literary and philosophical ideas. He received his education through the efforts of his mother, and he developed a love for books and reading at an early age. His father had moderate success as a sheep rancher, and young William spent the first fifteen years of his life in the romantic and rural surroundings of the pampas, or wild grasslands, of the Argentine Republic. Hudson were originally from New England, but they had decided to settle in Argentina because of the milder climate. Even his naturalization as a British citizen at the beginning of the twentieth century does not contradict that classification.
Although Hudson lived most of his life in England and many of his works deal with English subjects, he is still in several ways a South American writer. His tomb is at Sussex Downs, and a statue of Rima, the heroine of Green Mansions, carved by Sir Jacob Epstein, is found in the bird sanctuary at Hyde Park in London.
Hudson was born on August 4, 1841, near Buenos Aires, Argentina, and died on August 18, 1922, at Bayswater, England.
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