Autobiography (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Benjamin Franklin
- First Published: 1791
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- 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
Franklin's Autobiography is divided into three parts, with a short addendum added a few months before Franklin's death in 1790. Each has a distinct thematic purpose and thus serves, in part, to make the work an important philosophical and historical tract. Part 1 is, in essence, an extended letter to Franklin's son William, written in England in 1771. It recounts Franklin's ancestry, his early days in Boston and Philadelphia, and his first journey to London in 1724. In fact, Autobiography is by far the best source for information on Franklin's early life. Part 1 ends...
[The entire page is 1050 words long]
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