PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING (1796-1859), American
historian, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 4th of May
1796. His grandfather was Colonel William Prescott (1726-1795), who commanded at the battle of Bunker Hill; and his father was a well-known lawyer. He received his earlier education in his native city, until the removal of his family in 1808 to Boston. He entered Harvard College in the autumn of 1811, but almost at the outset his career was interrupted by an accident which affected the subsequent course of his life. A hard piece of bread, flung at random in the Commons Hall, struck his left eye and destroyed the sight. After graduating honourably in 1814 he entered his father's office as a student of law; but in January 1815 the uninjured eye showed dangerous symptoms of inflammation. When at last in the autumn he was in condition to travel, it was determined that he should pass the winter at St Michael's and in the spring obtain medical advice in Europe. His visit to the Azores, which was constantly broken by confinement to a darkened room, is chiefly noteworthy from the fact that he there began the mental discipline which enabled him to compose and retain in memory long passages for subsequent dictation; and, apart from the gain in culture, his journey
to England, France, and Italy (April 1816 to July 1817) was
scarcely satisfactory. The verdict of the physicians was that
the injured eye was hopelessly paralysed, and that the preservation
of the sight of the other depended upon the maintenance of
his general health. His further pursuit of the legal profession
seemed to be out of the question, and on his return to Boston he
remained quietly at home. On 4th May 1820 he was married
to Miss Susan Amory. Prior to his marriage he had made a
few experiments in composition, but he now finally decided to
devote his life to literature. A review of Byron's Letters on
Pope in 1821 constituted his first contribution to the North
American Review, to which he continued for many years to send
the results of his slighter researches. He next turned to French
literature, and to the early English drama and ballad literature. Of the direction and quality of his thought at this time he has left indications in his papers on Essay-Writing (1822) and on French and English Tragedy (1823). In pursuance of his method of successive studies he began in 1823 the study of Italian literature, passing over German as demanding more labour than he could afford. In the following year he made his first acquaintance with the literature of Spain under the influence of his friend and biographer, Ticknor; and, while its attractiveness proved greater than he had at the outset anticipated, the comparative novelty of the subject as a field for research served as an additional stimulus.