José Eustacio Rivera (1888-1928) was a Colombian novelist. He brought fresh vision to national literature and with "La vorágine" wrote perhaps the finest novel of the Latin American tropics.

Born in the southern Colombian town of Neiva, José Eustacio Rivera came from a provincial family of modest means. After becoming one of the first graduates of the recently organized teachers' college, he took a degree in law. For several years Rivera combined a law practice with modest literary activities and became a recognized member of Bogotá's urban intelligentsia. Named legal adviser and member of the Venezuela-Colombia Boundary Commission, he traveled first to the plains and then to the Amazon region. Exposed to these less well-known regions of the country, he lived with the Indians, for a time was lost in the jungle, and eventually contracted beriberi. During a period of convalescence he...