their Latin American television divisions. Latin Americans first became familiar with his voice when he did the narration for the Spanish-language television version of The Untouchables. In the 1950s, Mutis spent 15 months in a Mexican prison Palacio de Lecumberri as a consequence of his handling of money that had been set aside for charitable use by Standard Oil. He had been using the money to help his friends who were under threat from the military dictatorship in Colombia, and after he fled to Mexico, the Mexican government bowed to Colombian pressure and had him imprisoned. As soon as the Colombian dictatorship fell, the charges against him were dropped and he was freed. His experience in prison had a lasting influence on his life and work, and is chronicled in the book Diario de Lecumberri. Critical reception Mutis' close friend, Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez, called him "one of the greatest writers of our time." Mutis' works are most widely read in Latin America and Europe. Mutis is not well known in the anglophone world, probably because he is not easy to categorize. His literary work is not part of what is commonly understood in the American academy as "Latin American Literature". Maqroll, his most well-known character, is of indeterminate origin, nationality, age and physiognomy. He is not evidently from Latin America and does not represent anything particularly Latin American in character. Maqroll is a solitary traveler who brings a stranger's detachment to his encounters and his lovers; he searches for meaning in a time of violence and inhumanity. In this sense some literary critics have compared Maqroll to Sophocles' Oedipus. Political views Mutis described himself as "reactionary, legitimist and monarchist". Labelled as an "old reactionary", he was the coauthor of the 2002 Manifesto Against the Death of the Spirit and the Earth, itself described as an initiative to promote the ideas of the Nouvelle Droite. Works Diario de Lecumberri (1960) The Snow Of The Admiral (1986) Ilona Arrives with the Rain (1987) (loosely adapted into the 1996 film of the same name) The Tramp Steamer's Last Port of Call (1988) Un Bel Morir (1989) Amirbar (1990) Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships (1991) Triptych on Sea and Land (1993) The Adventures of Maqroll: Four Novellas (1995), consisting of the previously-published: The Tramp Steamer's Last Port of Call Amirbar Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships Triptych on Sea and Land Summa de