Richard Hakluyt

Born around 1552 or 1553, Richard Hakluyt was an English writer, editor, and Anglican clergyman whose name is closely tied to the age of exploration. He studied at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and became known for collecting reports from sailors, merchants, and explorers at a time when England was looking outward to trade, travel, and colonization.

Hakluyt is remembered above all for works such as Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America and the much larger Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Rather than being famous for a single voyage of his own, he became influential by assembling and publishing other people's accounts, giving readers a sweeping picture of English activity across the seas. His writing also argued that overseas expansion could bring wealth, influence, and religious purpose to England.

He died on November 23, 1616. Today, he is often seen as one of the key literary champions of early English expansion, and his collections remain valuable both as historical records and as a window into how exploration was imagined in his own time.