William Henry Hudson was a well-respected author and naturalist. Hudson was born in Argentina to two English settlers and he would eventually settle in England where he produced many ornithological studies. Hudson is now best remembered for books such as Green Mansions, The Purple Land That England Lost, and A Crystal Age.

The Purple Land That England Lost, published in 1885, is a novel set in Uruguay that centers around a young Englishman who marries a teenage Argentinian girl without asking her father's permission. The young couple is then forced to flee to Uruguay.