William Hickling Prescott, an eminent American historian, was born in
Salem, Massachusetts, in 1796, the son of an able lawyer, and grandson
of that Prescott who commanded our troops at Bunker’s Hill. When he
was twelve years of age his family removed to Boston, where Prescott
has since resided, and where his classical training, begun in the
place of his birth, was continued with success by Dr. Gardiner, a
pupil of Dr. Parr. In 1811 he entered Harvard college, and was
graduated there in 1814, with honors appropriate to his favorite
studies, and with an intention to devote himself to the legal
profession. But the great misfortune of his life had already befallen
him. Before he had been graduated, an accidental blow had deprived him
of the sight of one eye, and the natural consequences soon followed.
The other became weakened by the increased labor thrown upon it; and,
after a severe illness, during which he was entirely blind, he found
the sight of his remaining eye so much impaired, that he was compelled
to give up his professional studies and his hopes of success at the
bar. The next two years he spent in Europe, traveling for his health
in England, France, and Italy, and seeking the aid of the great
oculists of London and Paris. He returned to America with renovated
health, but for his misfortune found no relief. Still he was not
disheartened, but turned with alacrity to those studies which remained
yet within his reach. He resolved to become, in the best sense of the
word, a historian, and freely gave himself ten years to prepare for
the task, by a course of the classical reading he had always loved. He
then selected his subject, and, having done this, gave ten years more
to his ‘History of Ferdinand and Isabella,’ one of the few important
periods in the affairs of modern Europe that seemed to invite the hand
of a master. With this great work, in 1838, at the age of forty-two,
he appeared before the world as an author, publishing simultaneously
in London and Boston. It was received on both sides of the Atlantic,
with unhesitating applause. It has since run through many editions,
and been translated into German, Italian, French, and Spanish. During
his labor on this work, Mr. Prescott’s vision had been somewhat
improved by a diminution of the sensibility which had led to earlier
inflammations, and which had compelled him to live in a darkened
apartment, relying entirely on a reader when collecting his materials.
His ‘Conquest of Mexico,’ therefore, first printed in 1843, though
prepared largely from manuscript documents, was perhaps a work of less
troublesome toil than his first had been. The prompt honors that it
received were even more brilliant than those paid to the ‘Ferdinand
and Isabella,’ and having before been admitted to several of the
distinguished academies of Europe, he was now elected a member of the
French institute. His ‘Conquest of Peru’ appeared in 1847. It is
marked by the same striking events which distinguished its
predecessors, and is, with the exception of a volume of collated
miscellanies, his last work. It is understood that he is now engaged
in writing a ‘History of Philip II.’ In 1850 he made a short visit to
England, where he was received with marked kindness and respect by
whatever is most distinguished in society and letters, and where the
ancient university of Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of
doctor in the civil law.