The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Read this if you…
- love Benjamin Franklin + Founding fathers
Skip this if you…
- don't like autobiographies
- would rather just wikipedia the history of ben franklin
- hate america
The lineage through The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin built on it. - The first book Franklin bought, and the model behind his prose - He names Bunyan in the *Autobiography* and credits him with mixing narration and dialogue — the technique Franklin borrowed for telling his own story - Read Bunyan first and the *Autobiography* reads as its secular twin: the pilgrim's road to salvation rebuilt as the road to self-made virtue
- Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin built on it. - Franklin tells you himself where the form came from: Plutarch's *Lives*, devoured as a boy from his father's shelf — "time spent to great advantage" - That's why the *Autobiography* reads like a Plutarchan life and not a confession: it's an exemplary biography, character built from deeds, meant to be copied - Read Plutarch first and you see the mold Franklin poured himself into
- Proverbs by Solomon. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin built on it. - Franklin's whole gospel of industry traces to a single line of Solomon - He quotes *Proverbs* 22:29 directly — the verse his father drilled into him, "he shall stand before kings" — as the spur to a lifetime of diligence - Read it first and you hear the ancient voice behind the self-made man's swagger when he adds that he has "stood before five"
Depicted in Art
Bust-length oval portrait of Franklin in a plum coat, unpowdered hair to the shoulders, alert and direct gaze; the Salon of 1779 version.
Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, 1778
Marble bust of Franklin in old age, head turned slightly, full unpowdered hair and double chin captured with neoclassical exactness.
Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1778
The five-man drafting committee — Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman, Livingston — presents the Declaration to John Hancock in Independence Hall.
John Trumbull, 1819
Franklin in red robes is borne aloft on storm clouds, cherubs assisting, raising a kite key as sparks leap from his hand — depicted as a Prometheus-like figure stealing fire.
Benjamin West, 1816
Franklin seated at a table in spectacles, chin resting on his thumb in concentrated thought, reading a document; a bust of Isaac Newton presides over his shoulder.
David Martin, 1767
Recommended Editions
Yale University Press
2003
The Yale text, built from Franklin's actual manuscript instead of the French retranslation that floated around for a century. Leonard Labaree's notes carry the scholarly weight. This is the autobiography Franklin wrote.
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Notable Quotes
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
- Vince Vaughn, actor, filmmaker, 1970–: "Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is I think the most compelling of books."
- David Hume, Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, 1711–1776: "You are the first Philosopher, and indeed the first Great Man of Letters for whom we are beholden to her."
- Walter Isaacson, Biographer, former editor of Time magazine, b. 1952: "The first masterpiece by a self-made man."