William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796 – January 28, 1859) was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian. Despite having serious visual impairment, which at times prevented him from reading or writing for himself, Prescott became one of the most eminent historians of 19th-century America. He is also noted for his eidetic memory, also called "photographic memory".
After an extensive period of study, during which he sporadically contributed to academic journals, Prescott specialized in late Renaissance Spain and the early Spanish Empire. His works on the subject, The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (1837), The History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843), A History of the Conquest of Peru (1847) and the unfinished History of the Reign of Phillip II (1856–1858) have become classic works in the field, and have had a great impact on the study of both Spain and Mesoamerica. During his lifetime, he was regarded as one of the greatest living American intellectuals and personally knew many of the leading political figures of the day, both in the United States and Britain. Prescott has become one of the most widely translated American historians and was an important figure in the development of history as a rigorous academic discipline.Gardiner, p. ixGardiner, p. 143
Historians admire Prescott for his exhaustive, careful, and systematic use of archives, his accurate recreation of sequences of events, his balanced judgments, and his lively writing style. He was primarily focused on political and military affairs, largely ignoring the economic, social, intellectual, and cultural forces that historians have focused on in recent decades. Instead, he wrote narrative history, subsuming unstated causal forces in his driving storyline.Robert Muccigrosso, ed., Research Guide to American Historical Biography (1988) 3:1259–1261
Early life
William H. Prescott was born in Salem, Massachusetts on May 4, 1796, the first of seven children, although four of his siblings died in infancy.Sullivan, 1972, p. 154 His parents were William Prescott Jr., a lawyer, and his wife, née Catherine Greene Hickling. His grandfather William Prescott served as a colonel during the American Revolutionary War.Peck, p. 13
Prescott began formal schooling at the age of seven, studying under Mr. Jacob Knapp.Ticknor, 1864, p. 3; Peck p. 16 The family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1808, where his father's earnings substantially increased.Peck, 2009, p. 18 His studies continued under Dr. John Gardiner, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church.Sullivan, 1972, pp. 155–156; Peck p. 18; Gardiner p. 7 As a young man, Prescott frequented the Boston Athenæum, which at the time held the 10,000-volume private library of John Quincy Adams, who was on a diplomatic mission to Russia.Ticknor, 1864, p. 9Peck, p. 20 In 1832, Prescott became a trustee of the library, a position he held for 15 years.Gardiner, p. 324
Prescott enrolled at Harvard College as a second year student (sophomore) in August 1811, at the age of 15.Sullivan, 1972, p. 156; Peck p. 22 He was not considered academically distinguished, despite showing promise in Latin and Greek. Prescott found mathematics particularly difficult and resorted to memorizing mathematical demonstrations word-for-word, which he could do with relative ease, in order to hide his ignorance of the subject.Peck, p. 33Ticknor, 1864, p. 16Gardiner, p. 20 Prescott's eyesight degenerated after being hit in the eye with a crust of bread during a food fight as a student, and it remained weak and unstable throughout the rest of his life.Peck, p. 31 Prescott was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa society as a senior, which he considered a great personal honor,Ticknor, 1864, p. 26; Peck p. 34 and graduated from Harvard in 1814. After a short period of rheumatic illness, he embarked on an extended tour of Europe.
Prescott first traveled to the Portuguese island of São Miguel in the Azores archipelago, where his grandfather and Portuguese grandmother lived.Peck, p. 36 After two weeks, he left for the cooler climate of London, where he stayed with the distinguished surgeon Astley Cooper and the oculist William Adams.Peck, p. 37 Prescott first used a noctograph while staying with Adams; the tool became a permanent feature of his life, allowing him to write independently in spite of his impaired eyesight. He visited Hampton Court Palace with future American president John Quincy Adams, at the time a diplomat in London, where they saw the Raphael Cartoons.Ticknor, 1864, p. 44 In August 1816, Prescott traveled to Paris, but later moved on to Italy, where he spent the winter. He returned to Paris in early 1817, where he chanced to meet the American Hispanist George Ticknor, and made another visit to England. Prescott spent some time in Cambridge, where he saw the manuscripts of Isaac Newton's works, and returned to the United States in the same year.Ticknor, 1864, p. 49 Prescott's first academic work, an essay submitted anonymously, was rejected by the North American Review in late 1817.Ticknor, 1864, p. 51 After a short period of courtship, he married Susan Amory, the daughter of American poet Thomas Coffin Amory and Hannah Rowe Linzee, on May 4, 1820.Peck, p. 43
Career Early career: The History of Ferdinand and Isabella In 1821, Prescott abandoned the idea of a legal career because of the continued deterioration of his eyesight and resolved to devote himself to literature.Peck, p. 44 Although he initially studied a wide range of subjects, including Italian, French, English and Spanish literature, American history, classics and political philosophy, Prescott came to focus on Italian poetry.Gardiner, p. 71 Among the works he studied during this period were such classics as Dante's Divine Comedy and Boccaccio's Decameron. His first published works were two essays in the North American Review—both discussing Italian poetry. The first of these, published in 1824,Peck, p. 46 was titled Italian Narrative Poetry, and became somewhat controversial after it was heavily criticized in an Italian review by Lorenzo Da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart's Don Giovanni.Rossi, Joseph The Italian Poems of Thomas James Mathias, 1943, printed in Modern Language Quarterly, p. 331 Prescott wrote a succinct reply to Da Ponte's fifty-page argument in the North American Review of July 1825. Da Ponte published the criticisms as an appendix to his translation of Dodley's Economy of Human life, which resulted in Prescott noticing them rather late.Ticknor, 1864, p. 249
Prescott first became interested in the history of Spain after his friend, the Harvard professor George Ticknor, sent him copies of his lectures on the subject.Peck, p. 48 Prescott's studies initially remained broad, but he started preparing material on Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1826.Ticknor, 1864, p. 76 His acquaintance with scholar Pascual de Gayangos y Arce helped him construct a sizable personal library of historical books and manuscripts concerning the subject. Alexander Hill Everett, an American diplomat in Spain, also provided him with material which was unavailable to Prescott in Boston.Herring, p. 3 However, progress was stalled almost immediately, due to a sudden deterioration in Prescott's eyesight. Unable to find a reader fluent in Spanish, Prescott was forced to work through Spanish texts with an assistant who did not understand the language.Ticknor, 1864, p. 81 When Alexander Everett heard of this situation, he provided Prescott with the services of George Lunt, who had adequate knowledge of Spanish for the task. However, this could only be a temporary arrangement, and he was replaced by a man named Hamilton Parker, who held the position for a year.Gardiner, p. 87 Eventually, George Ticknor, who was by then in charge of the department of modern literature at Harvard University, found James L. English, who worked with Prescott until 1831.Ticknor, 1864, p. 82 Among the books studied by Prescott in this period, Ticknor lists Juan Antonio Llorente's Historia crítica de la Inquisición de España, Historia de los Reyes Católicos don Fernando y doña Isabel by , Voltaire's Charles XII and William Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, which were to be the sources on which the History of Ferdinand and Isabella was to be based.Ticknor, 1864, p. 89 In spring 1828, Prescott visited Washington, where he and Ticknor dined with John Quincy Adams at the White House, and saw Congress in session.Gardiner, p. 93
Due in part to his own condition, Prescott was interested in aiding the blind and partially sighted. The Perkins School for the Blind, then known as the New England Asylum, had been founded in Boston, Massachusetts by Samuel Gridley Howe, Thomas Handasyd Perkins, and John Dix Fisher and 28 others in 1829.Gardiner, p. 108 Prescott involved himself from the very start of the project, becoming a trustee in 1830. He published an article in support of education for the blind in the North American Review of July 1830, and helped to raise $50,000 for the organization in May 1833.Ticknor, 1864, p. 253Gardiner, p. 119
His work was disturbed in February 1829 by the unexpected death of his eldest daughter, Catherine, who was only four years old. This led him to reconsider his position on religion—previously an agnostic, his interest in Christianity was renewed, and having read the Bible, the works of the theologian William Paley as well as more skeptical works such as Hume's Of Miracles, he came to acknowledge the "moral truth" of the gospels, while remaining opposed to the doctrines of orthodox Christianity.Ticknor, 1864, pp. 91, 152. Despite this personal tragedy and his own continued ill health, Prescott had gathered sufficient material to begin drafting the History in October 1829.Ticknor, 1864, p. 94 At around this time, Prescott read the works of Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, including his historiographical piece De l’étude de l’histoire. He henceforth aimed to write history to de Mably's romantic ideal, and on more than one occasion expressed his indebtedness to him.Ticknor, 1864, p. 95 Prescott also encountered Elogia de la Réina Doña Isabel, by his Spanish contemporary Diego Clemencín, which helped shape his views concerning the monarchs' political roles. Due to further problems with his eyesight, it took him sixteen months to write the first three hundred pages of the History. It was largely finished by 1834, but Prescott dedicated two years to abridging and redrafting it. He was also briefly engaged in writing a biography of Charles Brockden Brown for Jared Sparks' Library of American Biography.Gardiner, p. 121 Prescott was not familiar with American literature, and he based the work on other contemporary biographies of Brown. As a result, the biography has had little academic impact. In 1835, he took residence in the rural town of Nahant, Massachusetts, due to concerns about his health.Ticknor, 1864, p. 99 He was here accustomed to riding his horses for the purpose of exercise, and he persevered even in sub-zero temperatures.Ticknor, 1864, p. 127 Prescott finished the concluding chapter of the work in July 1836, and despite the amount of time and effort which he had spent on the work, was at first unsure about publishing it. However, his father argued that refusing to do so would amount to cowardice, and this swayed him.Griswold, 1847, p. 372 Prescott had previously considered publishing the work in London first, and therefore a printed draft copy of the work was sent to a Colonel Aspinwall for consideration.Ticknor, 1864, p. 109 However, both Longman and Murray, which were at the time the leading British publishers, refused the work, and Prescott decided to postpone.