Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin FROM OUR EDITORS
Expresses 3 facets of the American dream: the ideal of material success, the possibility of moral renewal, & the hope of social progress.
ANNOTATION
One of the most powerful and controversial writers of his time, his own words on his greatest creation -- his own persona.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
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 the Declaration 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 was continually 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.
SYNOPSIS
Charming self-portrait covers boyhood, work as a printer, political career, scientific experiments, much more.
FROM THE CRITICS
AudioFile - Don Wismer
In the face of recent revisionist efforts to demean Franklin, itﾽs well to return to the most renowned of the Franklin biographies and winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize. Thereﾽs nothing extraordinary about the narration. Reader Patrick Cullen proceeds with clear enunciation at a steady pace, injects slight emotion in the few places where appropriate and generally delivers as straightforward a reading as one can expect. One never expects histrionics in a text such as this, and one is not disappointed here. The text itself is enriching and the presentation perfectly adequate. D.W. ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine
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