The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Benjamin Franklin
- First Published: 1791
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- Principal Characters: Benjamin Franklin, Josiah Franklin, James Franklin, Sir William Keith, Mr. Denham, Mr. Meredith, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Didactic literature
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Philosophy or philosophers, Pragmatism, Colonies or colonization, New England, Pennsylvania, Eighteenth century, Ethics, Inventions or inventors
- Locales: Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, London, England
In Twyford, England, at the age of sixty-five, Benjamin Franklin began to set down reminiscences of his early days, which he addressed to his “Dear Son.” For years he had been collecting information about his ancestors, who had lived in Ecton, Northamptonshire, as far back as 1555, the oldest date of the town records; and he thought that his son William Franklin (1731-1813) would someday be interested in the “circumstances” of his father’s life, just as Franklin had delighted in anecdotes relating to his ancestors.
The work was composed in installments. The first...
[The entire page is 1593 words long]
