William Prescott

William Hickling Prescott (1796–1859) was an American historian noted for narrative histories of Spain and the Spanish Americas. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard College, where an eye injury left him with severely impaired vision and shaped his working methods. Despite this limitation, he produced major works including *History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic* (1837), *History of the Conquest of Mexico* (1843), and *History of the Conquest of Peru* (1847). Prescott drew on extensive documentary research and became one of the most widely read historians of his era. He died in Boston, Massachusetts.