William Pilling

Born in Liverpool on November 12, 1834, William Pilling later moved to Buenos Aires in 1852, where he worked as a journalist and eventually owned a newspaper. Sources describe him as an English author and newspaper publisher in Argentina, with a life that moved back and forth between South America and England.

He is best known for fiction set in the La Plata region, including Ponce de Leon and Near the Lagunas, both published in 1878. Ponce de Leon appeared under the pseudonym An Estanciero, a fitting pen name for a writer so closely tied to Argentine subjects and settings.

Pilling also wrote nonfiction, including The Emancipation of South America (1893), a condensed translation of Bartolomé Mitre's history of San Martín for English-speaking readers. Later in life he married Frances Mary Mullens in 1897, retired to Worthing, Sussex, and died there on June 8, 1915.