The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-02-14
MIR. Preseott's method of Literary
Labor


Everything that relates to the historical
labors of the late William H. Prescott, is of
general interest. We have, therefore, pre-
pared somewhat minute sketch of the me-
thod of preparation and composition adopt
ed by the deceased, by which he was enab-
led to overcome his impaired vision, and to
place his name among historians of the very
first rank. Mr.. Prescott, it is well known,
though not blind, was affected with disor-
der of the nerve of the eye, 30 that he was
wholly incapacitated for reading, and writing
in the ordinary ways. He was exceedingly
systematic in his mode of life, and devoted
FIVE years out of the twenty-four to his
historical labors. After breakfast he listen
ed for an hour to some light reading, novel,
poem, or other entertaining obok. He then
walked for an hour. At half-past ten
o'clock his secretary came to his study and
remained till twelve o'clock. Another walk
of an hour was then taken, after which he
went to his study and aremained another
hour and half with his secretary. After
dinner, light reading was again resorted to,
and at six o'clock the secretary returned
and remained until eight. This routine of
work and leisure was very rigidly observed
throughout the season, during the years de-
voted to the preparation ..of his elaborate
volumes.
Mr.. Prescotts mode of writing tistory
was this: we will take, for example, his
last work, "Philip the Second" He ar
ranged in his study all the books and manu-
scripts relating to that monarch, which he
had been years in collecting, at an expense
of several thousand dollars. They number
ed three or four hundred printed volumes of
oil Sizna frxyar ialr
folios of manuscripts, richly boundi which
probably cost more than all the rest of the
collections, though some of the printed
works are exceedingly rare and valuable
the libraries and booksellers of all Western
Europe, from Cadiz to Amsterdam, having
been ransacked by agents in search of every
! thing that could throw light on the history
of Philip the Second. Except the dictiona-
ries and other works of reference, books not
specially relating to the subject in hand
were excluded from the study.
With his materials thus gathered about
him, the Historian commenced his work
The Secretary first read the only English
history of the King and his reign. Notes
I and observations were dictated as they were
! suggested by the book Having freshened
his recollection by hearing this volume read,
Z
ures he had collected. Each book was tax
| en- from the shelf in turns by the Secretary,
who read aloud its title, its table of contents,
/ and few pages by way of specimen of his
! style and character. Notes were taken while
! this examination was going on, which were
| preserved for future reference.
( OF the three or four hundred Volumes a
| great majority of course proved worthless,
| hai alu
ations, or translations of preceding authors,
or else, il original, without authority. The
number of books of real value would
be thus reduced down perhaps to hundred.
The huge folios of MSS. were next at
tackled. These had been examined by a
competent person, who prepared careful
digest and table of contents. The Secre-
tary read this, and notes were dictated as he
proceeded. Having thus, as it were, taken
an account of stock, and aseertained the gen.
eral character of his materials, they were
next inspected in detail in the following
manner:
The first chapter of Philip the Second con-
tains an aceoune of the abdication and last
days of his father and predecessor, Charles
the Fifth. The Secretary gathered round
him every volume, printed or MSS, which
contained anything about the last named
monarch. The books are in the English,
French, Spanish, Italian and Latin Ian
guages. One by one they were read aloud,
and copious notes were dictated. When
everything that related to Charles the Fifth
had thus been perused and noted, the His
torian began to compose his work, or, more
properly speaking, to write-for the process
of composition had, of course, been going
on in his mind during these preparatory la
bors.
The apparatus used by Mr.. Prescott con-
sisted of frame the size of common sheet
of letter paper with brass wires inserted to
correspond with the number of lines mark
ed. Thin carbonated paper was used, and
instead of pen the writer employed a sty-
lus with an agate point. The great difficult
ty in the way of persons writing in the
ordinary manner, whose vision is impaired
arises from not knowing when the ink i;
exhausted, and moreover the lines will be
run into one another.