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William Hickling Prescott PapersRequest ItemsFIND KeywordsTABLE OF CONTENTS

William Hickling Prescott PapersRequest ItemsFIND KeywordsTABLE OF CONTENTS



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH


William Hickling Prescott has been an historian and writer distinguished for his writings concerning the rise and collapse of the Empire. Prescott's histories obtained popular and critical success during his life, and now, although obsolete, they continue to be widely read and known in the historic community.


Prescott spent his early school years in Salem analyzing under Jacob Newman Knapp before his father moved the family to Boston at 1808.


In 1812, Prescott entered Harvard University with the intent of getting a lawyer like his dad. In 1815, he had been blinded in the left eye with a challenging bit of bread thrown at a dining area ruckus. Shortly after the accident, he started to suffer with"rheumatism" and inflammation in his right eye, a disease that will plague him for the remainder of his life. Prescott graduated from Harvard in 1815, however, it was apparent he wouldn't study for the pub.


Back in September 1815, Prescott set sail from Boston to see his maternal grandfather Thomas Hickling, a Boston merchant and United States consul, on St. Michael's Isle in the Azores, and also to concentrate on improving the status of his eyes. He suffered greatly during the voyage in the"rheumatism" and inflammation in his right eye and then spent most of his time St. Michael's at a darkened area. Back in April 1816, he drifted out of the Azores for London, where he met with many specialist oculists who ascertained the blindness in his left eye was irreversible as well as the disease in his right eye . Not able to pursue a law career, Prescott spent the upcoming few years in leisure, being read history as well as the classics by loved ones members and friends.


In this time period, Prescott and many friends started a literary and social group they called"The Club." They wrote essays and met frequently to review one another's writings, also in ancient 1820they started producing a periodical known as The Club Space , together with Prescott as the editor. The periodical lasted just four issues, but left a solid impression on Prescott that finally led him into a"lifetime of letters."


On 4 May 1820, Prescott wed Susan Amory. The union of almost 50 years created three children: Elizabeth, William Amory, and William Gardner Prescott. Shortly after his marriage and also the passing of his periodical, Prescott started his literary career. As a result of issues with his eyes, Prescott was a fastidious planner and generated elaborate short term and long-term research programs for himself. With the support of a personal assistant and his noctograph, a composing device to the blind, he also started his research in 1821 with American and English history, moving to French in 1822 and Italian in 1823. The following step in Prescott's strategy was to examine German, but after only a brief while he discovered German not to his liking, and he left his studies at frustration. At this moment, Prescott's long-time buddy George Ticknor was teaching Spanish literature at Harvard University for many decades. To only"entertain and occupy" his buddy, Ticknor spent the autumn of 1824 studying his lectures on Prescott, which November, Prescott substituted his German research .


Although constantly social, Prescott spent the vast majority of the remainder of his life writing letters, performing research, and writing his own histories in his three houses in Boston, Nahant, and Pepperell, Mass.. He traveled occasionally however, due to his eye issues, rarely ventured outside of america. To find and receive the Spanish, Mexican, and Peruvian publications and manuscripts required for his study, he regularly corresponded with friends, colleagues, and booksellers alive or visiting away from the United States to help him. Prescott maintained long-term correspondence with many famous folks, such as Charles Dickens, whom Prescott affirmed in their own crusade for global copyright laws. Prescott maintained his rigorous program for his whole career, and since he had been so meticulous in the maintenance of his attention, never missing his vision completely.


Prescott suffered a small stroke January 1858 and died a year after 28 January 1859 from a second more massive stroke.

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