Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings (Penguin Classics)

Benjamin Franklin's writings represent a long career of literary, scientific, and political efforts over a lifetime which extended nearly the entire eighteenth century. Franklin's achievements range from inventing the lightning rod to publishing Poor Richard's Almanack to signing theDeclaration of Independence. In his own lifetime he knew prominence not only in America but in Britain and France as well.This volume includes Franklin's reflections on such diverse questions as philosophy and religion, social status, electricity, American national characteristics, war, and the status of women. Nearly sixty years separate the earliest writings from the latest, an interval during which Franklin wascontinually balancing between the puritan values of his upbringing and the modern American world to which his career served as prologue.This edition provides a new text of the Autobiography, established with close reference to Franklin's original manuscript. It also includes a new transcription of the 1726 journal, and several pieces which have recently been identified as Franklin's own work.… (more)

Local notes

1305-136

User reviews

LibraryThing member keegopatrick

I personally think that this was one of the best books that I have ever read. I do not think that everyone will agree with me but I love Benjamin Franklin. He is by far my favorite character from the American Revolution! This was my second time reading this book and it was much better the second

time. I think that it had a lot to do with me being older and being able to relate to the things that Mr.Franklin talks about such as virtue, temperance and other things along those lines that you really just do not start to understand until you have a few years under your belt lol. This edition was also really cool because it is not only the autobiography but also other selected writings from Ben Franklin. Some of these letters and other short writings were really good and only serve to help the reader get a better understanding of some of the points that Franklin was getting at in his autobiography. I would recommend this book to anyone with a appreciation for history!

Show Less

5 more

LibraryThing member Redthing

An interesting autobiography of an interesting man, though he did seem kind of arrogant.

LibraryThing member BoundTogetherForGood

What do you know of Benjamin Franklin? You are probably aware that he was a well known statesman, influential in America's founding. You are probably also aware of an experiment he did with a kite and a key. In fact, he is lucky he survived it!

He was born the fifteenth child of twenty. His father

was married twice and had ten children born to each marriage. Benjamin was the youngest son of the family. He only had two years of formal education; most of his education was self imposed. At age twelve he was apprenticed to an older brother who owned a printing shop. His most famous pen-name, Silence Dogood, was created in an attempt to see his letters to his brother's newspaper published, for his brother would not allow him to write for the paper! He "became" Silence Dogood, a middle-aged widow, at the tender age of sixteen.

Some things you may not have known about him are that he was also: a writer; journalist; printer; publisher; philosopher; patriot and (oldest) signer of the Declaration of Independence; diplomat; arbiter; humorist, and quite a ladies' man. He was: a proponent for and one of the first to suggest the first true fire department whereof men would be assigned to a particular fire engine rather than goodwill and amateurs continuing to be the force with which fire was fought. Being an entrepreneur he also established the first fire insurance company! He proposed that the firefighters would practice and share information and that their skills at fighting fires would therefore improve. Franklin urged the licensing of chimney sweeps and proposed that homeowners should be required to keep leather fire-fighting buckets at their property.

Show Less

LibraryThing member HistReader

This autobiography is written as a letter, once interrupted for a decade or more, to his son. As many people have pointed out during history, the author is inclined to only include the facts they want and from their point of view. A self-congratulatory tome, Benjamin Franklin has much for to be

proud of himself. I enjoy his writing style and found this book to be interesting.

Show Less

LibraryThing member longhorndaniel

Was fun to read what Franklin had to say not only about himself but about his beliefs and society as well; essential reading for any serious history student/buff

LibraryThing member BeauxArts79

What a character. I recommend following this work with a well-written biography, for example Walter Isaacson's, in order to gain deeper insight into the idiosyncrasies of Franklin the man and the ironies of Franklin the autobiographer. All in all, this is a beautiful glimpse of colonial

Americanness, of what is often pejoratively called Protestant work ethic (on which so much of our culture and great literature are built), and of civic-minded virtue.

Show Less

Fewer

Language

English

Original publication date

1758 ('The way to wealth')

1771-1790 ('Autobiography' written by Benjamin Franklin)

1791 ('Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin', part 1, published in Paris)

1793 (Part 1 of the 'Autobiography', retranslated into English)

1818 (Parts 1-3 of the 'Autobiography', published by William Temple Franklin, in London, in Volume 1 of 'Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin')

1 more

1868 (Parts 1-4 of the 'Autobiography', published by John Bigelow)

Fewer