Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Benjamin Franklin was a writer, inventor, political theorist, diplomat, and Founding Father of the United States. He wrote under the pen name of Poor Richard from 1732 to 1757. Joyce E. Chaplin is James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University. She has taught at five different universities on two continents and an island and in a maritime studies program in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She is the author of An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South, 1730–1815 (1993), Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500–1676 (2001), The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius (2006), and Benjamin Franklin’s Political Arithmetic: A Materialist View of Humanity (2009).

• Introduction AcknowledgmentsNotes on the TextMaps: Franklin's Boston, Philadelphia, and LondonTHE TEXT OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHYThe Autobiography"A Quire Book of Letters"The Outline of the AutobiographyA Guide to People Mentioned in the AutobiographyCONTEXTSJournal of a Voyage, 1726Excerpts from Franklin's Letters Mentioning the Autobiography"Authentic Memoir of Dr. Franklyn"EXCERPTS FROM FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS ON AMBITION AND FAME, WEALTH, AND SELF-IMPROVEMENTAMBITION AND FAMEFrom Poor Richard Improved, 1750From Poor Richard Improved, Jan. 1758To Sarah (Franklin) Bache, June 3, 1779From Benjamin Vaughn, May 1785From Jane Mecom, July 21, 1786WEALTHTo Cadwallader Colden, Sept. 29, 1748To William Strahan, June 2, 1750To Jane Mecom, Dec. 30, 1770To Thomas Cushing, June 10, 1771Benjamin Vaughn to Lord Shelburne, Nov. 24, 1782To Robert Morris, Dec. 25, 1783To Benjamin Vaughn, July 26, 1784Last Will and Testament, 1788, and Codicil, 1789SELF-IMPROVEMENTFranklin's Epitaph, 1728Franklin's Junto Query on Human Perfection, 1732[Poor Richard on Self-Improvement, 1749]Rules for Making Oneself a Disagreeable Companion, 1749To Lord Kames, May 3, 1760To Abiah Franklin, Apr. 12, 1750To Joseph Priestley, Sept. 19, 1772CRITICISMCONTEMPORARY OPINIONSImmanuel Kant • [The Modern Prometheus]David Hume • To Franklin, May 10, 1762Franklin in the Cockpit • The Pennsylvania Gazette Report, 1774Benjamin Vaughn's Account, 1779Edmund Burke • To Count Patrick D'Arcy, Oct. 5, 1775From the New-Jersey Gazette, Dec. 31, 1777Peter Oliver •From Origins & Progress of the American RebellionRichard Price • To Franklin, May 1790Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau • Eulogy for Franklin before the National Assembly of France, 1790José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez • A Brief Eulogy for Benjamin Franklin, 1790José Francisco Correia da Serra • Eulogy for Franklin to the Royal Academy of Sciences, Lisbon, 1791John Adams • On Franklin, May 15, 1811NINETEENTH-CENTURY OPINIONSFrancis, Lord Jeffrey •From the Edinburgh Review, 1806Charles Brockden Brown •From Literary Magazine, 1806John Keats • To George and Georgiana Keats, Oct. 14-31, 1818Humphry Davy • Historical Sketch of Electrical DiscoveryEdgar Allan Poe • The Business ManLeigh Hunt •From Hunt's AutobiographyHerman Melville •From Israel PotterMark Twain • The Late Benjamin FranklinEmpress Shōken of Japan • [A Franklinian Poem], c. 1890Frederick Jackson Turner •FromThe Dial, May 1887William Dean Howells • From Editor's Study, Apr. 1888From Editor's Study, July 1888From Editor's Study, Jan. 1890From Editor's Easy Chair, Oct. 1905RECENT OPINIONSMax Weber •From The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismD. H. Lawrence • Benjamin FranklinW. Somerset Maugham • [The Classic Books of America]I. B. Cohen • Franklin and ScienceDavid Levin • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: The Puritan Experimenter in Life and ArtMichael Warner • Franklin: The Representational Politics of the Man of LettersPeter Stallybrass • Benjamin Franklin: Printed Collections and Erasable WritingBenjamin Franklin: A ChronologySelected BibliographyIndex