José Mármol (1817-1871) was one of the celebrated Argentine exiled writers and intellectuals. He gained his greatest recognition as the author of "Amalia," a long, melodramatic novel of intrigue about the secret resistance against the dictator Rosas.

José Mármol was born on Dec. 2, 1817, in Buenos Aires. He was an erratic student but eventually determined to be a lawyer and enrolled in the faculty of law of the University of Buenos Aires in 1836. He was destined not to finish his studies, however, for this was a period of great agitation in the country, and the university was one of the hotbeds of conspiracy against the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas.

On April 1, 1839, Mármol was briefly jailed for having in his possession newspapers published in Montevideo, Uruguay, by the principal Argentine intellectuals in exile, the proscriptos. Mármol claimed to...