Life: his childhood and youth, his apprenticeship and flight The four Autobiography sections completed by Franklin in his lifetime examine the earlier and formative periods of his In fact, Revolutionary affairs figure little in the memoir. Part One of Franklin's memoir is addressedĪs a letter to Franklin's son William, perhaps as a literaryĬonceit-and although the two would later become estranged over theĮvents of the American Revolution, Franklin still preserved this aspect of the work. Part Four, was written when Franklin was in poor health in This is also when he added most of his revisions. Had, after a long and distinguished international career, Part Three, datingįrom 1788-89, was composed when a Franklin now in his eighties Who wrote to Franklin urging him to resume the project. This is also whenįranklin most likely drew up his outline for the entire work.īy the summer of 1782, both documents had been seen by a friend, Abel James, Zall, Part One was penned while Franklin was Sections that differ both in tone and in focus-though FranklinĪlways intended the work to stand as a whole. Written over the course of several decades and never completed,įranklin's Autobiography is divided into four distinct Trade that is not documented with such coherence elsewhere. Revealing much about the art and business of the printer's It is also uniquely useful as the story ofĪ successful working printer in eighteenth-century North America, The Autobiography is a major source forĮxploring Franklin’s ideas on wealth and virtue as wellĪs his motivations in pursuing a long life of active civic Own remarkably influential career, but maps out a strategyįor self-made success in the context of emerging American Most enduringly popular examples of the genre ever written.Īs such, it provides not only the story of Franklin’s Popularity, but after two hundred years remains one of the Was not only the first autobiography to achieve widespread Historical document and Franklin's major literary work. 'Franklin gave us the definitive formation of theīenjamin Franklin's Autobiography is both an important Originally Writtenīy Himself, and Now Translated from the French. Introduction | Holdings: LC Manuscript, LC Print, Other Institutions | Online: LC, Other Institutions | Bibliography

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