Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

Biography

Born in Boston and one of fifteen children, Benjamin Franklin was apprenticed to his brother, a printer, when he was twelve. Five years later, he abruptly left his brother's newspaper and went to Philadelphia, where he taught himself several languages and, by the time he was twenty-four, edited the Pennsylvania Gazette and published it in his own printing shop. Shortly thereafter he published Poor Richard's Almanac, a compilation of often ironic meditations on and maxims for achieving wealth, among other topics. When he retired in his early forties, he counted among his accomplishments the founding of a library, the invention of a stove, and the subscription to an academy that later became the University of Pennsylvania. Upon retirement Franklin began to study the natural sciences, publishing accounts of his experiments with electricity in London in 1751. Franklin spent the rest of his life as a diplomat, in London, Paris, and Philadelphia. He was asked to be a representative to the second Continental Congress, in 1775, helped draft the Declaration of Independence, and, as a member of the American delegation to the Paris peace conference in 1781, signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. His Autobiography, composed between 1771 and 1790, reveals the complexities of the man -- his wit, his generosity, and his perceptiveness.

Explorations

As an American genius, Franklin needs little introduction; as a literary figure, he is remembered now chiefly for his vast legacy of epigrams, adages, aphorisms, and catchy pragmatic advice. In many ways he can be thought of as an opposite to Jonathan Edwards. Though both of them responded strongly to the intellectual strategies of the Enlightenment, Franklin followed many English Augustans and French philosophers into deism and buoyant skepticism and improvised a system of values which was not only "worldly," but amazingly indifferent to the moral and teleological problems central to Puritan thought. Wit and humor enter American letters with Franklin, as does a supreme confidence that hard work, utilitarian ethics, professional reliability, and sociability will be enough to organize a life and bring it happiness.

1. To understand the revolution that Franklin represents in American culture and thought, begin with one brief "Virtue" from Franklin's list in his Autobiography (1771-1790):

Consider carefully this secularized commandment. Does it contain complications or contradictions that would trouble Jonathan Edwards or the seventeenth-century New England Calvinists? Why wouldn't these problems trouble Franklin?

2. You have probably noticed that at various places in the Autobiography Franklin uses the words "erratum" and "errata," instead of more conventional terms. Why does Franklin avoid saying "sin" in recounting his adventures as a young man?

3. In his published work, Franklin was fond of aliases, pseudonyms, and even forgeries: some of his writings are supposedly by the King of Prussia, "Poor Richard," Silence Dogood, a "Late Minister," "The Count de Schaumbergh," and even his friend James Ralph. Remember also that he was a printer, someone who actually had some control over producing the words that a large public might read. Playfully or otherwise, how does Franklin experiment with the power and "authority" of authors and the printed word?

Other sites to consult:

"Benjamin Franklin: Glimpses of the Man". An extensive biographical site that includes a family tree and timeline.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. An online version of Franklin's autobiography accompanied by a portrait. From the Archiving Early America site.

Online Franklin texts. A wealth of materials compiled for the Historical Text Archive, including letters, journal entries, Franklin's will, almanac entries, and more.