The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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| Cover of the first English edition of 1793. | |
| Author | Benjamin Franklin |
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| Original title (if not in English) | Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Autobiography |
| Publisher | Buisson, Paris (French edition) J. Parson's, London (First English reprint) |
| Released | 1791 |
| Released in English | 1793 |
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790; however, Franklin himself appears to have called the work his Memoirs. Although it had a tortuous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography ever written
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Franklin's account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods at which he wrote them. There are actual breaks in the narrative between the first three parts, but Part Three's narrative continues into Part Four without an authorial break (only an editorial one).
[edit] Part one
Part One of the Autobiography is addressed to Franklin's son William, at that time (1771) the Royal Governor of New Jersey. While in England at the estate of the Bishop of St. Asaph's in Twyford, Ben Franklin begins by saying that it may be agreeable to his son to know some of the incidents of his father's life, so with a week's uninterrupted leisure, he is beginning to write them for William. He starts with some anecdotes of his grandfather, uncles, and father and mother. He deals with his childhood, his fondness of reading, and his serving as an apprentice to his brother James, a Boston printer and the publisher of the New England Courant. After improving his writing skills through study of the Spectator by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, he writes an anonymous paper and slips it under the door of the printing house by night. Not knowing its author, James and his friends praise the paper and it is published in the Courant, and this encourages Ben to produce more essays (the "Silence Dogood" essays) which are also published. When Ben reveals his authorship, James is angered, thinking the recognition from his papers will make Ben too vain. James and Ben have frequent disputes and Ben seeks for a way to escape James' service.
Eventually James gets in trouble with the colonial assembly, which jails him for a short time and then forbids him to publish the paper any longer. James and his friends come up with the stratagem that the Courant should hereafter be published under the name of Benjamin Franklin, although James will still actually be in control. James signs a discharge of Ben's apprenticeship papers but writes up new private indenture papers for Ben to sign which will secure Ben's service for the remainder of the agreed time. But when a fresh disagreement arises between the brothers, Ben chooses to leave James, correctly judging that James will not dare to produce the secret indenture papers. ("It was not fair in me to take this Advantage," Franklin comments, "and this I therefore reckon one of the first Errata of my life.") James does, however, make it impossible for Ben to get work anywhere else in Boston. Sneaking onto a ship without his father's or brother's knowledge, Ben heads for New York, but the printer William Bradford is unable to employ him; however, he tells Ben that his son Andrew, a Philadelphia printer, may be able to use him as one of the son's principal employees had just died.
By the time Ben reaches Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford has already replaced his employee, but refers him to Samuel Keimer, another printer in the city, who is able to give him work. The Governor, Sir William Keith, takes notice of Franklin and offers to set him up in business for himself. On Keith's recommendation, Franklin goes to London for printing supplies, but when he arrives, he finds that Keith has not written the promised letter of recommendation for him, and that "no one who knew him had the smallest Dependence on him." Franklin finds work in London until an opportunity arises of returning to Philadelphia as a merchant's assistant; but when the merchant takes ill, he returns to manage Keimer's shop. Keimer soon comes to feel that Franklin's wages are too high and provokes a quarrel which causes the latter to quit. At this point a fellow employee, Hugh Meredith, suggests that Franklin and he set up a partnership to start a printing shop of their own; this is subsidized by funds from Meredith's father, though most of the work is done by Franklin as Meredith is not much of a press worker and is given to drinking.
They establish their business, and plan to start a newspaper, but when Keimer hears of this plan, he rushes out a paper of his own, the Pennsylvania Gazette. This publication limps along for three quarters of a year before Franklin buys the paper from Keimer and makes it "extremely profitable." (The Saturday Evening Post traces its lineage to Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette.) The partnership also gains the printing for the Pennsylvania assembly. When Hugh Meredith's father experiences financial setbacks and cannot continue backing the partnership, two friends separately offer to lend Franklin the money he needs to stay in business; the partnership amicably dissolves as Meredith goes to North Carolina, and Franklin takes from each friend half the needed sum, continuing his business in his own name. In 1730 he marries Deborah Read, and after this he draws up proposals for a "Subscription Library"—the first public library. At this point Part One breaks off, with a memo noting that "The Affairs of the Revolution occasion'd the Interruption" in Franklin's writing. then he dies.
[edit] Part two
The second part begins with two letters Franklin received in the early 1780s while in Paris, encouraging him to continue the Autobiography, of which both correspondents have read Part One. (Although Franklin does not say so, there had been a breach with his son William after the writing of Part One, since the father had sided with the Revolutionaries and the son had remained loyal to the British Crown.)
At Passy,(in which franklin had rapped a french girl) a suburb of Paris, Franklin begins Part Two in 1784, giving a more detailed account of his public library plan. He then discusses his "bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection," listing thirteen perfect in himself. He creates a book with columns for each day of the week, in which he marks with black spots his offenses against each virtue. He eventually realizes that perfection is not to be attained, but feels himself better and happier because of his attempt.
[edit] Part three
Begun in August 1788 when Franklin had returned to Philadelphia, the author says he will not be able to utilize his papers as much as he had expected, since many were lost in the recent Revolutionary War. He has, however, found and quotes a couple of his writings from the 1730's that survived. One is the "Substance of an intended Creed" consisting of what he then considered as the "Essentials" of all religions. He had intended this as a basis for a projected sect but, Franklin says, did not pursue the project.
In 1732, Franklin first publishes his Poor Richard's Almanac, which becomes very successful. He also continues his profitable newspaper. In 1734, a preacher named Hemphill arrives from Ireland; Franklin supports and writes pamphlets on behalf of him. However, someone finds that Hemphill has been plagiarizing portions of his sermons from others, although Franklin rationalizes this by saying he would rather hear good sermons taken from others than poor sermons of the man's own composition.
Franklin studies languages, reconciles with his brother James, and loses a four-year-old son to smallpox. Franklin's club, the Junto, grows and breaks off into subordinate clubs. Franklin becomes Clerk of the General Assembly in 1736, and the following year becomes Comptroller to the Postmaster General, which makes it easier to get reports and fulfill subscriptions for his newspaper. He proposes improvements in the city watch and fire prevention.
The famed preacher George Whitefield arrives in 1739, and despite significant differences in their religious beliefs, Franklin assists Whitfield by printing his sermons and journals and by lodging him in his house. As Franklin continues to succeed, he provides the capital for several of his workers to start printing houses of their own in other colonies. He makes further proposals for the public good, including some for the defense of Pennsylvania, in which he has to contend with the pacifist position of the Quakers.
In 1742 he invents the Franklin stove, refusing a patent on the device. He proposes an academy, which after raising money by subscription opens and expands enough that a new building for it has to be constructed. Franklin obtains other governmental positions (city councilman, alderman, burgess, justice of the peace) and helps negotiate a treaty with the Indians. After helping Dr. Thomas Bond establish a hospital, he helps pave the streets of Philadelphia and draws up a proposal for Dr. Fothergill about doing so in London. In 1753 Franklin becomes Deputy Postmaster General.
The next year, as war with France is expected, representatives of the several colonies, including Franklin, meet with the Indians to discuss defense; Franklin at this time draws up a proposal for the union of the colonies, but it is not adopted. General Braddock arrives with two regiments, and Franklin helps him secure wagons and horses, but the general refuses to take Ben's warning about danger from hostile Indians during Braddock's planned march to Frontenac (now Kingston, Ontario). When they are subsequently attacked, the general is mortally wounded, and his forces abandon their supplies and flee.
As a militia is formed due to passage of a bill Franklin drafted, the governor asks him to take command of the northwestern frontier. With his son as aide de camp, Franklin heads for Gnadenhut, raising men for the militia and building forts. Returning to Philadelphia, he is chosen colonel of the regiment; his officers honor him by personally escorting him out of town. This gives great offense to the proprietor of the colony (Thomas Penn, son of William Penn) when someone writes an account of this in a letter to him, and the proprietor complains to the government in England about Franklin.
Now the Autobiography discusses "the Rise and Progress of [Franklin's] Philosophical Reputation." He starts experiments with electricity and writes letters about them that are published in England as a book. Franklin's description of his experiments is translated into French, and the Abbé Nollet, who is offended because this calls into question his own theory of electricity, publishes his own book of letters attacking Franklin. Declining to respond on the grounds that anyone could duplicate and thus verify his experiments, Franklin sees another French author refute Nollet, and as Franklin's book is translated into other languages, its views are gradually accepted and Nollet's are discarded. Franklin is also voted an honorary member of the Royal Society.
A new governor arrives, but disputes between the assembly and the governor continue. (Since the colonial governors are bound to fulfill the instructions given by the colony's proprietor, there is a continuing struggle for power between the sides of the legislature and of the governor and the proprietor.) The assembly is on the verge of sending Franklin to England to petition the King against the governor and proprietor, but Lord Loudoun arrives on the English government's behalf to mediate the differences. Franklin still goes to England accompanied by his son, after stopping at New York and making an unsuccessful attempt to be recompensed by Loudoun for his outlay of funds during his militia service. They arrive on July 27, 1757.
[edit] Part four
Written sometime between November 1789 and Franklin's death on April 17, 1790, this section is very brief. After Franklin and his son arrive in London, the former is counselled by Dr. Fothergill on the best way to advocate his cause on behalf of the colonies. Franklin visits Lord Granville, president of the King's Privy Council, who asserts that the king is the legislator of the colonies. Franklin then meets the proprietaries (the switch to the plural is Franklin's, so apparently others besides Thomas Penn are involved). But the respective sides are far from any kind of agreement. The proprietaries ask Franklin to write a summary of the colonists' complaints; when he does so, their solicitor for reasons of personal enmity delays a response. Over a year later, the proprietaries finally respond to the assembly regarding the summary with a "flimsy Justification of their Conduct." The assembly during this delay has prevailed on the governor to pass a taxation act, and Franklin defends the act in English court so that it can receive royal assent. While the assembly thanks Franklin, the proprietaries, enraged at the governor, turn him out and threaten legal action against him; in the last sentence, Franklin tells us the governor "despis'd the Threats, and they were never put in Execution."
[edit] What Franklin does not record
The final sentence of the Autobiography (which lacks a period in the original manuscript) takes us only up to 1763. Thus, many of the most significant portions of Franklin's life—especially his contributions to the Revolutionary War effort—are not dealt with by the author. We know that Franklin intended to cover more ground because there is an outline of the Autobiography written by him and copied by Henry Drinker, a clerk for Franklin's friend Abel James. Although Franklin's original draft outline is lost, Franklin had Drinker's copy of the outline with him when he wrote Parts Two through Four, and also made handwritten corrections to it. This outline ends with a reference to the Treaty of Paris, which Franklin helped negotiate, so the obvious inference is that Franklin's death prevented his proceeding further with the Autobiography.
[edit] Publication history
The Autobiography remained unpublished during Franklin's lifetime. In 1791, the first edition appeared, in French rather than English, as Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, published in Paris. This translation of Part One only was based on a flawed transcript made of Franklin's manuscript before he had revised it. This French translation was then retranslated into English in two London publications of 1793, and one of the London editions served as a basis for a retranslation into French in 1798 in an edition which also included a fragment of Part Two.
The first three parts of the Autobiography were first published together (in English) by Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, in London in 1818, in Volume 1 of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin. W.T. Franklin did not include Part Four because he had previously traded away the original holograph of the Autobiography for a copy that contained only the first three parts. Furthermore, he felt free to make unauthoritative stylistic revisions to his grandfather's autobiography, and on occasion followed the translated and retranslated versions mentioned above rather than Ben Franklin's original text.
W.T. Franklin's text was the standard version of the Autobiography for half a century, until John Bigelow purchased the original manuscript in France and in 1868 published the most reliable text that had yet appeared, including the first publication of Part Four. In the 20th century, important editions by Max Ferrand and the staff of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California (Benjamin Franklin's Memoirs: Parallel Text Edition, 1949) and by Leonard W. Labaree (1964, as part of the Yale University Press edition of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin) improved on Bigelow's accuracy. In 1981, J.A. Leo Lemay and P.M. Zall produced The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text, attempting to show all revisions and cancellations in the holograph manuscript. This, the most accurate edition of all so far published, served as a basis for Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: A Norton Critical Edition and for the text of this autobiography printed in the Library of America's edition of Franklin's Writings.
[edit] Reactions to the work
Franklin's Autobiography has received widespread praise, both for its historical value as a record of an important early American and for its literary style. It is often considered the first American book to be taken seriously by Europeans as literature. William Dean Howells in 1905 asserted that "Franklin's is one of the greatest autobiographies in literature, and towers over other autobiographies as Franklin towered over other men." However, Mark Twain's essay "The Late Benjamin Franklin" (1870) provides a less exalted reaction, albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek (for example, claiming that his example had "brought affliction to millions of boys since, whose fathers had read Franklin's pernicious biography"). D.H. Lawrence wrote a notable invective against "Middle-sized, sturdy, snuff-coloured Doctor Franklin" in 1924, finding considerable fault with Franklin's attempt at crafting precepts of virtue and at perfecting himself.
Nevertheless, responses to The Autobiography have generally been more positive than Twain's or Lawrence's, with most readers recognizing it as a classic of literature and relating to the narrative voice of the author. In this work, Franklin's persona comes alive and presents a man whose greatness does not keep him from being down-to-earth and approachable, who faces up to mistakes and blunders ("Errata") he has committed in life, and who presents personal success as something within the reach of anyone willing to work hard enough for it.
[edit] Sources
- J.A. Leo Lemay & P.M. Zall, eds., Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: A Norton Critical Edition (NY: Norton, 1986). ISBN 0-393-95294-0. (Used for most information in article, including quotes from Autobiography text, history of publication, and critical opinions.
- Benjamin Franklin: Writings, ed. J.A. Leo Lemay (NY: Library of America, 1987). ISBN 0-940450-29-1. (Notes on p. 1559 are source for dating of Part Four.)
