Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin( 1706–90),born in Boston, was a grandson of Peter Folger. At the age of ten he began to work with his father, a tallow chandler and soap boiler, and from 12 to 17 was apprenticed to his half-brother James Franklin, to whose New England Courant he contributed his Dogood Papers (1722). He had little formal education, but read widely, being particularly influenced by Locke, Shaftesbury, Xenophon, the Spectator, and some of Cotton Mather's works. After a quarrel with his brother (1723), he ran off to Philadelphia, where he entered the printing shop of Samuel Keimer. Under the patronage of Governor Keith, he was sent to England to buy equipment for his own press, but, failing to receive the necessary money, he worked in a London printing house. While abroad he wrote A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain (1725) to refute Wollaston's Religion of Nature Delineated, which he had set...
[The entire page is 1294 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
