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    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
    Ebook249 pages4 hours

    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

    By Benjamin Franklin and Mint Editions

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    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791) is an unfinished memoir by Benjamin Franklin. Addressing the work to his son William, Franklin intended to provide a private account of his life and accomplishments. Published after his death, however, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has since been recognized as one of the most influential works of autobiography in history, as well as a foundational text for the American ideal of the self-made man.

    Born in Boston, Franklin joins his brother’s printing business at a young age, learning the ropes in an industry which will later bring him both wealth and fame. Secretly, however, he publishes a series of essays under the pseudonym “Silence Dogood,” satirical pieces written from the perspective of a middle-aged widow. When his authorship is revealed, a dispute ensues between Franklin and his brother that leads the young Benjamin to look for work elsewhere. Unable to find work in New York City, Franklin continues south toward Philadelphia, where he establishes himself as the printer and editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. After describing his system of thirteen virtues aimed at moral perfection, Franklin returns to his work as a publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanack, a successful yearly pamphlet containing meteorological information, practical tips, and puzzles. Franklin also focuses on his diplomatic work, scientific research and inventions, and his appointment as an honorary member of the prestigious Royal Society.

    This edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

    Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

    With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMint Editions
    Release dateFeb 16, 2021
    ISBN9781513284682
    Author

    Benjamin Franklin

    Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American writer, printer, politician, postmaster, scientist, and diplomat. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin found success at a young age as editor and printer of the Pennsylvania Gazette, a prominent Philadelphia newspaper. From 1732 to 1758, Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack, a popular yearly pamphlet that earned Franklin much of his wealth. An influential Philadelphian, Franklin founded the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which would become the University of Pennsylvania, in 1751. In addition, Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia, as well as the city’s first fire department. As revolutionary sentiment was on the rise in the thirteen colonies, Franklin traveled to London to advocate on behalf of Americans unhappy with British rule, earning a reputation as a skilled diplomat and shrewd negotiator. During the American Revolution, his relationships with French officials would prove essential for the war effort, the success of which depended upon munitions shipments from France. Over the next few decades, he would serve as the first postmaster general of the United States and as governor of Pennsylvania while maintaining his diplomatic duties. A dedicated and innovative scientist, Franklin is credited with important discoveries regarding the nature of electricity, as well as with inventing the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. A slaveowner for many years, Franklin eventually became an abolitionist. Although he failed to raise the issue during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he led the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and wrote essays on the subject of slavery, which he deemed “an atrocious debasement of human nature.”

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    • 3/5
      A very interesting autobiography - I knew nothing of Franklin's early years, when he worked so successfully in publishing. A lot of what we love so much here on Library Thing might have been impossible without his good work.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. Franklin's accomplishments are beyond dispute, and certain stories he relates have a charm that harken back to America in a very different age.Nonetheless, Franklin's view of himself is nothing other than narcissistic, and his incessant attention (i.e., devotion?) to money is distasteful. All in all, a decent read into a storied but ultimately unappealing personality.
    • 3/5
      Ben had a rare brilliance. That being said, when reading this book it's obvious he knew that as well. The hardest part in reading this book was muddling through the mind-blowing vanity. It was amazing to see history from his point of view, in an accurate historic and non-fictional setting but DANG! Very vain. That's my only complaint but it lowered my opinion of the account.
    • 5/5
      If you think you know Benjamin Franklin from what they taught you in school, you should read his autobiography and be enlightened. In fact, did you know this man invented the autobiography? You think of Benjamin Franklin as this old fat rich white guy who you may have heard was kicked out of France for being too rowdy. Of all places, he was kicked out of France. How do you get kicked out of France? Only Benjamin knows how. Now you might also feel scornful of him because his pretty face is on the $100 bill you're having a hard time keeping tabs on, and you have to hear time and time again about how great this guy is and how he's one of America's founding fathers. We get it. But do you know how he managed to get so great? Would you believe this man went to grammar school for less than a year and yet he was able to be so successful? Not that my point is: "Hey, if Benjamin Franklin became famous without having to suffer in the prison-like schools, why can't anyone else do the same?" No. By all means, stay in grade school until you graduate. The reason why Benjamin was so successful is because he was auto-didactic, that is, he was self-taught. He would take out a book and copy the writing word for word until he could imitate it and develop his own writing style. Now that's dedication. This man believed in the quality of hard-work, and he believed that anyone could climb to the top if they work hard enough. Sound familiar? Now if any of the above information piques your interest, go read about the great inventor and one of the successful men in the world.
    • 4/5
      I'm not a big fan of biographies, but I feel like the useful advice offered within Franklin's life-story is deserving of some serious bonus points. So much of what he said was so motivating and makes me feel like I can achieve some previously unforeseen potential.
    • 4/5
      Just about every leader in the self-improvement genre advises that you should read Ben Franklin’s autobiography. So, it has been on my list for a long time. I’ve tried to check it out many times, but it was never on the shelves at my local library. So, I finally put a hold on it, and here we are. The book takes the form of a letter to his son, so one of the most notable things about it is that it is not really a book, in the sense that it has no chapters. It is a very long letter spelling out what, you assume, Franklin felt it was important to tell us about his public life. I, for one, found it to be very enlightening. First of all, I learned a lot about Franklin. I’m sure I learned some of this stuff in elementary school, but I’ve since forgotten it. He is responsible for much more history than just the kite flying and the socializing in France. As a matter of fact, it is hard to believe that one person could contribute so much, in so many different aspects of life, to society. I walked away with the sense that Franklin never slept and never had a sick day in his life. He couldn’t have in order to do everything he did. I also learned a lot about society in the 1700s from this book. Because Franklin is writing about things that happened to him, you can easily get a sense of the way business, politics, and life was conducted during his time. This was a period in our culture where arguments were made through the use of a pamphlet. If you wanted to make a point about something, you wrote and distributed a pamphlet. Others would read and either agree or disagree with you. Many times, if they disagreed, they would do so through their own pamphlet. I believe that this pamphlet culture was imperative to the building of our culture, because the author of a pamphlet would think through their position, layout their arguments, providing supporting evidence or testimonials, and ensure that they had made their case before publishing. They put their reputation on the line when they published a pamphlet, knowing that if they published something that later turned out to be untrue, they would lose face. In our current environment of sound-bites and tweets, I must say that I’m a little nostalgic for a pamphlet culture. Finally, maybe because I spend my free time on issues of literacy and education, I learned from this book that Franklin was a self-taught, life-long learner. Part of the reason that he accomplished as much as he accomplished is because of his shear curiosity. He wasn’t a scientist, but that didn’t stop him from conducting science experiments and publishing his findings. He didn’t do this for any other reason that he was curious to know why things work the way they do. He didn’t say to himself, ‘I wonder how come it is faster to sail from America to Europe than it is to sail from Europe to America, but I’m not a scientist, so I guess I’ll never know.’ He did some experiments and found the Gulf Stream. He didn’t leave it to someone else, he didn’t ask for permission, and he didn’t let the fact that he was a printer, not a scientist keep him from doing it. He had an insatiable need to learn and discover new things. That may be the best lesson we can take from Franklin’s life.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed it, especially how much humor it contained. There are so many stories that I had to bring up and discuss with others - learning about how he was a vegetarian for awhile and while watching the other people on a ship catching and eating cod, and smelling how delicious it was when they were being cooked, and then seeing that inside each cod, there were smaller fish, he decided it was OK to eat another animal because the cod were eating other animals too. And then admitting to himself how great it was that man was a reasonable creature and could make such reasonable accomodations. And I enjoyed how he put together a list of virtues that he practiced and monitored (I'm actually considering trying out his system in 2013), and when someone he knew suggested he should add to the list, and in particular add pride. He eventually agreed to add pride, but he also admitted he was proud of his list of virtues...! Franklin's autobiography isn't complete, there are some gaps and it only covers ~50 of his 84 years. And certainly as an autobiography it's a bit biased...(there's a lot of pride in it!) I had read McCullough's John Adams and remember vividly what John Adams though about Franklin based on the time he spent with him in France. So, at some point I will need to read a good biography of Franklin.
    • 3/5
      I first picked this book up along with a good binding of Poor Richard's Almanack quite some time ago but I didn't start reading it until after I heard about it from Christopher Hitchens in his collection, Arguably. Besides calling him the cleverest of the founding fathers, he also had seemingly unearthed new light on the downright humor of Benjamin Franklin. I didn't know a saying like "The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves" was in jest but after I heard that suddenly it made perfect sense. Sadly that and much of the rest of his famous proverbs are not included in this biography which has some humor in it but contrary to what Hitchens said is actually fairly straight forward and worse, a little on the unedifying side. This may be due to its incomplete state. Sure, some of it had some insight into what made the man so successful and for that I've awarded the score I did but it also gets into matters of state which I find to be boring. All in all not what Christopher Hitchens touts it to be or even what Franklin probably wanted it to be and therefore a disappointment. Stay for parts 1 and 2 but leave for parts 3 and 4, and wonder what the book would've looked like complete. As it is, it's just not enough. Of anything.
    • 4/5
      "Started From The Bottom" in book form, basically. Franklin's own 4-page outline of his life is amazing.
    • 4/5
      The book is split into four parts. The first part was a spectacular overview of the first third of his life. It wasn't tedious and brought together for me many concepts I've so far spent my life contemplating.

      I do recommend.
    • 3/5
      I don't feel qualified to rate this. I'm just going to give it a solid 3.
    • 4/5
      Benjamin Franklin has a wonderful voice. It is consistently sincere and earnest while having a strange combination of humility and smugness. I found Part I of the Autobiography most interesting. It describes Franklin's early experiences, his start in printing, his flight from Boston to Philadelphia, the rivalries between different print shops, and his trip to England. In part this was interesting because it was a single unified narrative, whereas much of what came later was more of a collection of miscellanies about Franklin's role in everything from the legislation provisioning armed forces to Poor Richard's Almanac to the Indian wars to inventions as varied as the Franklin stove to how to best arrange the gutter in public streets. Unfortunately it had only a very brief part on the runup to the revolution and nothing on the revolution or what followed. It is a loss that Franklin never wrote a complete autobiography.
    • 2/5
      I had to read this when I was in high school. One thing I learned from this is that our historical figures are not always lovable. The book, written for Franklin's son, is also in contrast to how he actually lived.
    • 4/5
      Originally written as a letter to his illegitimate son, Benjamin Franklin sets out to tell the story of his life's work. It briefly covers his childhood but focuses more on his years of employment, first as a printer's apprentice, then as a prominent political leader among many, many other things. By the end of it you will be asking what didn't this guy do? However, it ends (abruptly) before his involvement in the Revolution or his efforts to free slaves, two aspects of his life I find most interesting. Peppered throughout the autobiography is Benjamin Franklin's adamant call to humility, modesty, and virtue which is humorously contradictory for a man with such a long list of obvious accomplishments.
    • 2/5
      oh my. what an unlikable guy this benjamin unles you are a workoholic. he refused to play chess with his friend because it takes time away from his studies? he never stopped to smell the roses it seems. a sad life.
    • 5/5
      Franklin was a crazy guy back in his day. I really enjoyed reading about his life and the interesting ways he went about trying to constantly be a better person.
    • 4/5
      In the summer of 1771, while he was living in a country home in England, Benjamin Franklin began an autobiography that he was destined to never finish. He prepared an outline of a final section that he did not complete, but the four parts that he did finish represent one of the seminal documents of the enlightenment. In his description of a "new Regime", as Professor Joseph Alulis referred to it in his lucid and invigorating presentation at the Chicago Cultural Center today (part of the First Friday series of lectures), Franklin described a new order or foundation for what became The United States of America. Only 5 years after writing the first part of his autobiography Franklin would join Thomas Jefferson and others in writing the Declaration of Independence of the United States. The autobiography is an inspirational work and one that recommends the life of virtue and wisdom. A book worth reading and rereading.
    • 4/5
      Franklin's autobiography is straight-forward, amusing, and honest. For someone interested in early American history or in autobiography, I can't recommend this highly enough. It's a telling look into a highly moral life, with something for everyone to find and give further thought to. I think that, for any reader, interest will flag in some spots, but in the end it's a worthwhile read to have come through, and certainly worthy of being called an American classic.
    • 5/5
      The great man in his own words. A classic everyone should read.
    • 4/5
      Benjamin Franklin has a wonderful voice. It is consistently sincere and earnest while having a strange combination of humility and smugness. I found Part I of the Autobiography most interesting. It describes Franklin's early experiences, his start in printing, his flight from Boston to Philadelphia, the rivalries between different print shops, and his trip to England. In part this was interesting because it was a single unified narrative, whereas much of what came later was more of a collection of miscellanies about Franklin's role in everything from the legislation provisioning armed forces to Poor Richard's Almanac to the Indian wars to inventions as varied as the Franklin stove to how to best arrange the gutter in public streets. Unfortunately it had only a very brief part on the runup to the revolution and nothing on the revolution or what followed. It is a loss that Franklin never wrote a complete autobiography.
    • 5/5
      Excellent original resource for studies in colonial America. Franklin offers his account of life before the American Revolution.
    • 3/5
      Required reading, I suppose, for those of us trying to grasp the mindset of the founders of the United States. Franklin's free-wheeling book flits from topic to topic, now an account of his early apprentice printing days, now a lengthy diatribe on the back-and-forth of a particular political struggle. Peppered with anecdotes, proverbs and false modesty. I find Franklin fascinating. I at once want to be exactly like him and nothing like him. He's a conundrum, at once piercingly moral and yet full of falsity and selfishness. He's brilliant and driven and gets things done, but he glosses over his own shortcomings (while insidiously painting a picture of complete honesty and introspection). Franklin is a character too complex to have ever been invented--he is confounding reality, too big for fiction. Franklin was in many ways a progressive. He cites the importance of education for women (albeit with the goal of filling in gaps whilst husbands or sons are incapacitated) and religious tolerance and diversity ("...even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service"), yet he labels Native Americans as "savages", bent on simplistic overindulgence and wanton slaughter, following the traditional parlance and bigotry of the time. My rating reflects not the historical worth of this document but my fulfillment and enjoyment upon reading it. The lengthy passages about Franklin's struggles in political office and the debating of bills and whatnot in Assemblies bored the pants off of me--it's simply not in any category that interests me. Those more driven by political science and government structure would likely rate the whole work higher.
    • 4/5
      My first look into the early life of a famous American. I always knew he was a printer, but never fully understood how much his profession played a roll in his life. As a printer and a Mason I hope to follow Ben as a great American.
    • 3/5
      I took this book to understand more about Franklin. Franklin is writing this to his son. I enjoyed his plan for moral perfection, and he admits that he is not perfect. It seemed that Franklin read a lot and enjoyed being around with readers.

      Deus Vult
      --Gottfried

    • 3/5
      I like the reflection on his growth and tales of upbringing. But, Old Benjamin was prone to speak highly of himself and there are a few racist and sexist parts regarding Native Americans especially.
    • 4/5
      I listened to the autobiography via LibriVox.org. While I recognize that volunteers read the books, the narrator for this book would've been right at home on NPR.Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed Franklin's autobiography. Although I've read much about the period, I was a bit worried that the language would be such that it might be difficult to follow. But this was not the case. Many of the anecdotes were quite humorous and certainly illuminating. Franklin was an amazing man.The problem with the book is that he didn't cover anything beyond 1764 or so. This was disappointing to me as I expected to hear his thoughts on the 10-year period leading up to the Declaration of Independence, as well as his involvement in said document. I also wanted to hear, from his perspective, about his time in France. Maybe I should have already been aware of the period the book covered but I wasn't.Regardless, I'd encourage you to read (or listen) to it as it reminds us that human nature doesn't change, but that every now and then along comes someone who breaks the mold. Franklin is clearly an example of this.
    • 5/5
      My wife recommended this one to me, and she was absolutely right to. I loved it. Ben Franklin is probably my favorite figure from that period in American history, not just for what he did but for his character, wit, and humility. All of those shine through in this book.His autobiography covers his life from his birth in 1706 through the mid-1760’s. It was written in four sections. The first was written as a letter to his son William in 1771, and it reads very much like one with personal asides and mention of family. The next was written in Paris in the early 1780s while acting as ambassador, and it was more formal, aimed at someone who at read that earlier letter to his son and encouraged him to continue the record. The third section was written after he had returned to Philadelphia after the Revolutionary War, and the fourth was a very short section that appeared to be an attempt to continue it towards the war.I detailed the sources of the writing because it impacts how it is read. The early section (perhaps the first half of the book) reads as an Englishman speaking to his son, both to fill him in on the family history as well as to remind him of some of their joint experiences. It reads fairly sweetly and humorously. The Revolutionary War is not yet on his horizon. At best, he expresses occasional distress as the some of the decisions by the crown and the decisions by the William Penn’s heirs back in England over the management of the Pennsylvania colony.The later sections were written during or after the war, and hints of family are gone. He does not say so explicitly, but it is known that he and his son took different sides in the war, and neither forgave the other. He makes occasional mentions of his son, as they actually took some joint actions during the French/Indian war in the 1760’s, but gone is that sense of affection. It’s noticeable in the language, but that much more striking when you know what happened between them.Also at this point, the war is behind him, and his frustration with England’s management of the colonies shows strongly. It is not merely that he feels they were wrong or greedy but that they were predisposed to act unethically or to at least act so as to protect themselves from the assumption that the colonists would act unethically. This was especially offensive to him as he had taken great pains over his life (as outlined in some of the text) to develop a strong ethical code.Obviously, he writes about the many of the projects he undertook in life, the accomplishments he made, and the relationships he forged, but rather that hoist them up to brag, he details his decisions around them and how he was able to succeed. It seems as though his main goal in this is not to preen but to instruct, as though he wants his audience to learn from his mistakes and methods to go forth and do even greater things.Towards that point, I think he nailed a good policy on debate, which will likely form a future essay I write on netiquette. After detailing a method of debate that won him many victories, some of which he felt were undeserved, he altered his strategy:I continued this method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or I should think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken.This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion in inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engaged in promoting; and, as the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving information or pleasure.For, if you would inform, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent candid attention.If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fixed in your present opinions, modest sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.And by such a manner, you can seldom hope to recommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, or to persuade those whose concurrence you desire.He hits on similar themes elsewhere on everything from telling someone they are mistaken to convincing a large group to support a position. It’s as much history as it is instruction on the art of polite debate. As such, I think this is a book that every American should read, less for its factual content than for its lessons on how to behave in a political society. As for the rest of you, it’s actually quite a bit of fun, so give that poor Yank a read anyway.
    • 2/5
      It reads more like a diary or journal than an autobiography.
    • 5/5
      Everyone should read this book. The narrative of Benjamin Franklin’s life is full of adventure, including leaving Boston to make his fortune as a printer in Philadelphia, two extended stays in London, involvement in Pennsylvania politics, scientific experiments and participation in the French and Indian Wars. (The autobiography ends before the American Revolution). Franklin’s observations on colonial life are an important source for information on colonial America and its relationship with Great Britain. The insights on how Franklin achieved his success as a printer and politician provide practical advice that still resonates today. Even his description of his efforts to discipline himself to live a life of virtue and hard work is not only still relevant but also contributes to the overall pleasure to be derived from reading this autobiography.Franklin addresses his autobiography to his son, and indeed many people would benefit from reading the book when they start out in life. He lays out his daily effort to master thirteen virtues in which every day’s successes and failures were recorded on a chart listing the virtues and every day of the week. He acknowledges that when a friend pointed out that pride was one of his faults, he added humility to his list of virtues to be pursued. His total list consisted of the following twelve virtues in addition to humility: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility and chastity. Concerning order (“Let all your things have their place; let each part of your business have its time“), he bemoans that he was never able to teach himself to keep his papers neat and tidy.More important than his schema of virtues is the wisdom to be derived from numerous examples of practical choices made in his political and business life. For example, Franklin tells the story of a man in the Pennsylvania Assembly who sought to defeat Franklin’s reappointment as clerk to the Assembly because the man had another candidate he was backing. Fortunately for Franklin, the man’s efforts fell short and Franklin was reappointed. Rather than treat this man henceforth as an enemy, however, Franklin, knowing the gentleman had a valuable collection of books, asked the man if he could borrow a particular book he knew was in the collection. The man was very happy to lend the book to Franklin, and became a close friend who did other favors for Franklin in the future. Franklin draws the lesson that a person who does a kindness for another person is much more likely to do additional kindnesses for that person in the future, while a person who does a kindness for another person is much less likely to receive a kindness in return.He identifies several actions which he labels “errata.” These include his failure to correspond from London with his future wife, who married someone else and only became Franklin’s wife much later after her first husband died. He also thinks it was a mistake for him when starting out to accept a large sum of money from a friend of his father’s, which because he lent it on to friends who never paid him back he himself was not in a position to pay back, although he was fortunate that his father’s friend did not ask for the money until many years later when Franklin did have the resources to pay.Franklin’s formal education ended in grade school and his father than began to seek an apprenticeship position for him. (He wanted to go to sea, which his father strongly opposed, and the initial plans for him to become a cleric fell through.) He ended up as an apprentice to one of his elder brothers who was a printer in Boston. (Benjamin was the 10th child in his family.) On moral grounds, he became a vegetarian. Later he discloses that he rationalized eating fish when he saw that the fish to be eaten had in their stomachs smaller fish they had devoured.Franklin loved to read and pursued his own self education. He learned foreign languages and Latin. (One of his recommendations for education is that students should study Latin after learning a romance language rather than before.) To improve his writing, he would take brief notes of articles in the Spectator magazine, and then rewrite the articles in his own language. He would then compare his writing to the original.He also loved to discuss issues and ideas with contemporaries. At first he would argue his positions forcefully, but soon learned that this approach was not persuasive. He then adopted the Socratic method and reveled in his ability to put his interlocutors into Socratic dilemmas. He was brought up as a Dissenter but reading books critical of Deism convinced him that Deism was the proper attitude toward God.On his first stay in London, he got a job with a printer. He lived on Little Britain near Clerkenwell, where the printers were located. He moved to Duke Street closer to the West End when he changed printers. Before returning to America, he gave some swimming lessons (in the Thames!) to sons of aristocrats and concluded he could have made a career out of this. He would swim from Chelsea to Blackfriar’s.While he was making his way and his fortune in Philadelphia as a printer, he also became involved in a variety of nonbusiness activities. He and his friends formed a discussion group, called the Junto, and these efforts eventually led to subscriptions to start the first library in America and to found a school which eventually became the University of Pennsylvania. He learned early on not to put himself forward as the founder of a new enterprise but rather to create it as an initiative of a number of friends. By not permitting one’s vanity to seek to raise one’s reputation above one’s friends, he found, it was much easier to get general consensus and financial support for new initiatives because a group of individuals could take the credit.By making his annual Poor Richard’s Almanac entertaining and useful, he “reaped considerable profit” from its sales. He was particularly proud of his newspaper. In a discussion that reminds us of debates concerning the role of free speech in social media today, he states the following:“In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded all libeling and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful to our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did, the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper was like a stagecoach, in which anyone who would pay had a right to a place, my answer was, that I would print the piece separately if desired, and the author might have as many copies as they please to distribute himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread his detraction; and that, having contracted with my subscribers to furnish them with what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill their papers with private altercation, in which they had no concern, without doing the manifest injustice.”During the French and Indian War, he assisted General Braddock in obtaining wagons from Pennsylvania farmers, even though the farmers required Franklin guarantee compensation if the wagons were not returned. General Loudoun, Braddock’s successor put off paying Franklin for a long time, but fortunately he was paid shortly before the guarantee would have been exercised. At this time he made his second stay in London. He noticed how dirt would accumulate in the streets and then become mud in the rains. He came up with a proposal for keeping the streets clean, based on having a drain in the middle of the street. He also developed in Philadelphia an efficient method to operate street gas lights that he recommended be adopted in London.He relates how initially his discoveries in electricity were overlooked by the British but were acclaimed by the French. He favored teaching young women the basics of business accounting because widows who outlived their husbands engaged in business would need such knowledge to protect their interests.It is a pity that the autobiography ends before the American Revolution, but apparently his later years are covered by correspondence and other papers. He also had a falling out with his son William during the revolution. William, who was illegitimate, became a loyalist rather than supporting the patriot cause.Franklin’s autobiography is one of the most important primary sources for historians of the period at the same time that it is a readable and interesting narrative of part of the life of one of the most important founding fathers. The full richness of this autobiography cannot be adequately summarized in a review without repeating the autobiography itself. Start reading it (in my edition it was only 114 pages long) and see if it catches you within the first ten pages.
    • 5/5
      A classic. More than anyone else, Franklin may have been the template for what Americans like to think of as the prototypical American: ambitious, disciplined, enterprising, entreprenurial, gregarious, socially oriented, creative and dynamic.All of which calls to mind later entities: Horatio Alger,Tom Swift, Dale Carnegie, "Silicon Vallyites" among others...

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    The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Benjamin Franklin

    I

    ANCESTRY AND EARLY YOUTH IN BOSTON

    Twyford, at the Bishop of St. Asaph’s, 1771

    DEAR SON

    I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week’s uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

    That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more favourable. But though this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one’s life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.

    Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as anyone pleases. And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

    And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done; the complexion of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions.

    The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, for three hundred years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of about thirty acres, aided by the smith’s business, which had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son being always bred to that business; a custom which he and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you what account I can of them at this distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my absence, you will among them find many more particulars.

    Thomas was bred a smith under his father; but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal gentleman in that parish, he qualified himself for the business of scrivener; became a considerable man in the county; was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, of which many instances were related of him; and much taken notice of and patronized by the then Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, January 6, old style, just four years to a day before I was born. The account we received of his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from its similarity to what you knew of mine. Had he died on the same day, you said, one might have supposed a transmigration.

    John was bred a dyer, I believe of woollens, Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious man. I remember him well, for when I was a boy he came over to my father in Boston, and lived in the house with us some years. He lived to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now lives in Boston. He left behind him two quarto volumes, MS., of his own poetry, consisting of little occasional pieces addressed to his friends and relations, of which the following, sent to me, is a specimen. He had formed a short-hand of his own, which he taught me, but, never practising it, I have now forgot it. I was named after this uncle, there being a particular affection between him and my father. He was very pious, a great attender of sermons of the best preachers, which he took down in his short-hand, and had with him many volumes of them. He was also much of a politician; too much, perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into my hands, in London, a collection he had made of all the principal pamphlets relating to public affairs, from 1641 to 1717; many of the volumes are wanting as appears by the numbering, but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books met with them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of him, he brought them to me. It seems my uncle must have left them here when he went to America, which was about fifty years since. There are many of his notes in the margins.

    This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before. This anecdote I had from my uncle Benjamin. The family continued all of the Church of England till about the end of Charles the Second’s reign, when some of the ministers that had been outed for non-conformity, holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, and so continued all their lives: the rest of the family remained with the Episcopal Church.

    Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife with three children into New England, about 1682. The conventicles having been forbidden by law, and frequently disturbed, induced some considerable men of his acquaintance to remove to that country, and he was prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy their mode of religion with freedom. By the same wife he had four children more born there, and by a second wife ten more, in all seventeen; of which I remember thirteen sitting at one time at his table, who all grew up to be men and women, and married; I was the youngest son, and the youngest child but two, and was born in Boston, New England. My mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom honorable mention is made by Cotton Mather, in his church history of that country, entitled Magnalia Christi Americana, as "a godly, learned Englishman," if I remember the words rightly. I have heard that he wrote sundry small occasional pieces, but only one of them was printed, which I saw now many years since. It was written in 1675, in the home-spun verse of that time and people, and addressed to those then concerned in the government there. It was in favour of liberty of conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists, Quakers, and other sectaries that had been under persecution, ascribing the Indian wars, and other distresses that had befallen the country, to that persecution, as so many judgments of God to punish so heinous an offense, and exhorting a repeal of those uncharitable laws. The whole appeared to me as written with a good deal of decent plainness and manly freedom. The six concluding lines I remember, though I have forgotten the two first of the stanza; but the purport of them was, that his censures proceeded from good-will, and, therefore, he would be known to be the author.

    "Because to be a libeller (says he)

    I hate it with my heart;

    From Sherburne town, where now I dwell

    My name I do put here;

    Without offense your real friend,

    It is Peter Folgier."

    My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church. My early readiness in learning to read (which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read), and the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at the end of the year. But my father, in the meantime, from a view of the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain—reasons that he gave to his friends in my hearing—altered his first intention, took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his profession generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler; a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New England, and on finding his dyeing trade would not maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping mould and the moulds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc.

    I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much in and about it, learned early to swim well, and to manage boats; and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting public spirit, tho’ not then justly conducted.

    There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for a new house near the marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my playfellows, and working with them diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the removers; we were discovered and complained of; several of us were corrected by our fathers; and, though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.

    I think you may like to know something of his person and character. He had an excellent constitution of body, was of middle stature, but well set, and very strong; he was ingenious, could draw prettily, was skilled a little in music, and had a clear, pleasing voice, so that when he played psalm tunes on his violin and sung withal, as he sometimes did in an evening after the business of the day was over, it was extremely agreeable to hear. He had a mechanical genius too, and, on occasion, was very handy in the use of other tradesmen’s tools; but his great excellence lay in a sound understanding and solid judgment in prudential matters, both in private and public affairs. In the latter, indeed, he was never employed, the numerous family he had to educate and the straitness of his circumstances keeping him close to his trade; but I remember well his being frequently visited by leading people, who consulted him for his opinion in affairs of the town or of the church he belonged to, and showed a good deal of respect for his judgment and advice: he was also much consulted by private persons about their affairs when any difficulty occurred, and frequently chosen an arbitrator between contending parties. At his table he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children. By this means he turned our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of life; and little or no notice was ever taken of what related to the victuals on the table, whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to this or that other thing of the kind, so that I was bro’t up in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me, and so unobservant of it, that to this day if I am asked I can scarce tell a few hours after dinner what I dined upon. This has been a convenience to me in traveling, where my companions have been sometimes very unhappy for want of a suitable gratification of their more delicate, because better instructed, tastes and appetites.

    My mother had likewise an excellent constitution: she suckled all her ten children. I never knew either my father or mother to have any sickness but that of which they dy’d, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age. They lie buried together at Boston, where I some years since placed a marble over their grave, with this inscription:

    Josiah Franklin,

    and

    Abiah his wife,

    lie here interred.

    They lived lovingly together in wedlock

    fifty-five years.

    Without an estate, or any gainful employment,

    By constant labor and industry,

    with God’s blessing,

    They maintained a large family

    comfortably,

    and brought up thirteen children

    and seven grandchildren

    reputably.

    From this instance, reader,

    Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling,

    And distrust not Providence.

    He was a pious and prudent man;

    She, a discreet and virtuous woman.

    Their youngest son,

    In filial regard to their memory,

    Places this stone.

    J. F. born 1655, died 1744, Ætat 89.

    A. F. born 1667, died 1752,______85.

    By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be grown old. I us’d to write more methodically. But one does not dress for private company as for a public ball. ’Tis perhaps only negligence.

    To return: I continued thus employed in my father’s business for two years, that is, till I was twelve years old; and my brother John, who was bred to that business, having left my father, married, and set up for himself at Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I was destined to supply his place, and become a tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was under apprehensions that if he did not find one for me more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as his son Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He therefore sometimes took me to walk with him, and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he might observe my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on some trade or other on land. It has ever since been a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools; and it has been useful to me, having learned so much by it as to be able to do little jobs myself in my house when a workman could not readily be got, and to construct little machines for my experiments, while the intention of making the experiment was fresh and warm in my mind. My father at last fixed upon the cutler’s trade, and my uncle Benjamin’s son Samuel, who was bred to that business in London, being about that time established in Boston, I was sent to be with him some time on liking. But his expectations of a fee with me displeasing my father, I was taken home again.

    II

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