One of Argentinas most famous writers was born in Argentina but was of Irish heritage.
Benito Lynchs were originally from Galway, Ireland, but were landed gentry in Argentina, where that had a large country estate. Often compared with Emily Dickinson for his reclusive lifestyle, Lynch lived in the La Plata area of Buenos Aires for much of his life - alone with his two sisters.

Lynchs eccentricism flowed straight into his writing. His short stories were considered quirky and almost of a magic realism. He wrote hundreds of stories that all seemed to strike a populist vein with people. The stories were tales of Argentine country life, and they were written in a simple and direct style that would have been indicative of the people who lived on the ranches and were, perhaps, gauchos. They were a new type of realism with regard to the traditional approach to the gaucho novel, which was a popular Argentine genre. Portraying the peoples of the South American grasslands was something Lynch knew about from having grown up on a cattle ranch. Lynch was never well known outside Argentina because he wrote his stories in a particular vernacular language that was from the real gauchos, and the genre was never that popular anywhere else. He was perceptive and a great interpreter of human nature. If he is compared to more well-known writers, they would be Thomas Hardy, Knut Hamsum, Ladislas Reymont and other writers of the soil. Creatively, he is thought of as a genius and thus takes his rightful place amongst famous Argentinian writers.

Lynchs stories were often turned into films or stage plays and are still performed today.
There may have been no other Argentinian writer who knew the pampas life more intimately than he did. He was 66 when he died.

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