Concept

Benjamin Franklin

Overview

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general.

Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the policies of the British Parliament and the Crown. He pioneered and was the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected its president in 1769. He was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network.

Franklin was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. He became a hero in North America when, as an agent in London for several colonies, he spearheaded the repeal of the unpopular Stamp Act by the British Parliament. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired as the first U.S. ambassador to France and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco–American relations. His efforts proved vital in securing French aid for the American Revolution. From 1785 to 1788, he served as President of Pennsylvania. From at least as early as 1735 through the following decades, Franklin owned at least seven slaves and ran "for sale" ads for slaves in his newspaper, but by the late 1750s, he had begun arguing against slavery, became an active abolitionist, and promoted the education and integration of African Americans into U.S. society.

As a scientist, Franklin's studies of electricity made him a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics. He also charted and named the Gulf Stream current. His numerous important inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, glass harmonica and the Franklin stove. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, the University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia's first fire department.

Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity. He was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris peace with Britain, and the Constitution. Foundational in defining the American ethos, Franklin has been called "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become".

Franklin's life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and his status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen him honored for more than two centuries after his death on the $100 bill and in the names of many towns and counties, educational institutions and corporations, as well as in numerous cultural references and a portrait in the Oval Office. His more than 30,000 letters and documents have been collected in The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot said of him: "Eripuit fulmen cœlo, mox sceptra tyrannis" ("He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants").

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Benjamin Franklin is discussed.

It is therefore the first edition of _the_ autobiography" [p. 199].) _The Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself. Now first edited from original manuscripts and from his printed correspondence and other writings_, by John Bigelow. 3 vols. Philadelphia: 1874.
Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
names the idea; talks about the author, not by them; the book is about it; opens on it
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More detail can be found at the end of the book. The WORKS Of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, L.L.D. for Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, Paternoster Row, London. THE COMPLETE WORKS, IN PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, AND MORALS, OF THE LATE DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, NOW FIRST COLLECTED AND ARRANGED: WITH MEMOIRS OF HIS EARLY LIFE, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. London: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD; AND LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME…
Benjamin Franklin, The Complete Works in Philosophy, Politics and Morals of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 3 [of 3]
the book is about it; names the idea
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The sheer scale and magnitude of such operations lifts them above the level of the international trade of five hundred or even a hundred years ago. And their far-reaching results of every sort in the lives of nations and of individuals the world over can in no intelligible sense be understood as mere homogeneous multiples of what trade meant before our age of steam, iron, and electricity. Finally, we may think of…
John Dewey, Creative Intelligence
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Comprising two hundred and fifty titles of standard works, embracing fiction, essays, poetry, history, travel, etc., selected from the world's best literature, written by authors of world-wide reputation. Printed from large type, on good paper, and bound in handsome cloth binding, uniform with this volume, Price, 75 cents per copy. =Adam Bede.= By George Eliot. =Æsop's Fables.= =Alhambra, The.= By Washington Irving.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship and travels, vol. 1
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Four years before Benjamin Franklin inaugurated _Poor Richard's Almanack_ his elder brother presented himself in this wise: Tho' I have not given you my _proper Name_, yet I assure you I have had one the greatest part of half an hundred Years; and I know of no Necessity for parting with it at this Time, since I presume my Almanack will answer all the Ends design'd without that Expence. So, wishing you a happy new…
Roger J. Trienens, Pioneer Imprints from Fifty States
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Benjamin Franklin

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