The Portable Benjamin Franklin (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Benjamin Franklin, statesman, philosopher, and man of letters, was born in Boston in 1706 of Protestant parents. He entered Boston Grammar School when he was eight and later attended George Brown Ell’s school. When he was twelve his father apprenticed him to his half-brother James as a printer. James was later the publisher of the New England Courant, where Franklin’s first articles, The Dogood Papers, were published before he was seventeen. He went to Philadelphia in 1723 and pursued his trade of printer. He was befriended by William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania, who offered to help the young man get started in business. Franklin left for England, where he hoped to arrange for the purchase of printing equipment. Arriving in London in 1724, he was soon deserted by Keith, and again turned to printing for a livelihood. His privately printed Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain (1725) introduced him to leading Deists and other intellectuals in London. A year later, he returned to Philadelphia, and by 1730 he had been appointed public printer for Pennsylvania. In 1731 he established the first circulation library in the United States; in 1743-44, The American Philosophical Society. In 1748 he retired from the trade of printer but continued to advise and back his partner and to draw profit from the business. Poor Richard’s Almanack was his most spectacular success as a publisher, having gone through numerous editions and been translated in many languages. During the next thirty-five years he devoted himself largely to politics and diplomacy, but still wrote and engaged in scientific ventures. He resigned as Minister to France in 1785, returned to America, and was elected President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Still concerned with the rights of the individual, he published papers encouraging the abolition of slavery. He died in Philadelphia in 1790.

Larzer Ziff is a research professor of English at Johns Hopkins University who has written extensively on American literary culture.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction

Acknowledgements

PART I - PRINTER, JOURNALIST, TRADESMAN (1722-1757)

THE DOGOOD PAPERS

EPITAPH

THE PRINTER TO THE READER

AN APOLOGY FOR PRINTERS

LETTER FROM ANTHONY AFTERWIT

LETTER FROM CELIA SINGLE

ADVICE TO A PRETTY CREATURE AND REPLIES

HINTS FOR THOSE THAT WOULD BE RICH

A TRUE PROGNOSTICATION, FOR 1739

PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD IMPROVED

A STRIKING SUN DIAL

THE WAY TO WEALTH

PART II - THE BETTERMENT OF LIFE

A PROPOSAL

PROPOSALS RELATING TO THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH IN PENSILVANIA. PHILADELPHIA: - ...

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

TO OLIVER NEAVE

THE HANDSOME AND DEFORMED LEG

TO RICHARD PRICE

THE ART OF PROCURING PLEASANT DREAMS - Inscribed to Miss [Shipwey], Being ...

TO CADWALLADER COLDEN

TO MRS. ABIAH FRANKLIN

TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN

TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN

TO WILLIAM STRAHAN

TO WILLIAM FRANKLIN

CODICIL TO THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

TO PETER COLLINSON

TO A FRIEND IN BOSTON

TO PETER COLLINSON

TO PETER COLLINSON

TO JOHN PRINGLE

TO SIR ALEXANDER DICK

TO DAVID HUME

TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY

TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS

TO LA SABLIERE DE LA CONDAMINE

TO GEORGE WHATLEY

DESCRIPTION OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR TAKING DOWN BOOKS FROM HIGH SHELVES

TO BENJAMIN VAUGHAN

PART III - POLITICS: THEORY AND PRACTICE

ON TRANSPORTED FELONS

EXPORTING OF FELONS TO THE COLONIES - The Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1751.

OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE INCREASE OF MANKIND, PEOPLING OF COUNTRIES, ETC.

JOIN OR DIE - The Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754.

THREE LETTERS TO GOVERNOR SHIRLEY

TO ISAAC NORRIS

TO PETER COLLINSON

ON THE PRICE OF CORN, AND MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR

RULES BY WHICH A GREAT EMPIRE MAY BE REDUCED TO A SMALL ONE; - Presented to a ...

AN EDICT BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA

TO WILLIAM FRANKLIN

TO WILLIAM STRAHAN

TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY

TO A FRIEND IN ENGLAND

TO LORD HOWE

ANECDOTE RECALLED BY JEFFERSON

TO MRS. MARY HEWSON

THE SALE OF THE HESSIANS

TO A FRIEND

MODEL OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

TO CHARLES DE WEISSENSTEIN

PASSPORT FOR CAPTAIN COOK

THE LEVÉE

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON

TO JAMES HUTTON

APOLOGUE

TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS

INFORMATION TO THOSE WHO WOULD REMOVE TO AMERICA

TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS

TO MRS. SARAH BACHE

SPEECH IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ON THE SUBJECT OF SALARIES

SPEECH IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AT THE CONCLUSION OF ITS DELIBERATIONS

ON THE ABUSE OF THE PRESS

AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC;

PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE FREE BLACKS

SIDI MEHEMET IBRAHIM ON THE SLAVE TRADE

PART IV - RELIGION: BELIEF AND CRITIQUE

A DISSERTATION ON LIBERTY AND NECESSITY, PLEASURE AND PAIN

TO JOSIAH FRANKLIN

TO JOSEPH HUEY

TO JARED INGERSOLL

CONTE

TO RICHARD PRICE

TO SAMUEL MATHER

TO EZRA STILES

PART V - BAGATELLES AND DALLIANCES

A WITCH TRIAL AT MOUNT HOLLY

ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN

THE SPEECH OF POLLY BAKER

TO THE EDITOR OF A NEWSPAPER

THE TWELVE COMMANDMENTS

THE EPHEMERA - An Emblem of Human Life

ELYSIAN FIELDS - M. Franklin to Madame Helvétius

THE WHISTLE - To Madame Brillon

MORALS OF CHESS

TO MRS. ELIZABETH PARTRIDGE

DIALOGUE BETWEEN FRANKLIN AND THE GOUT

AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT

A PETITION OF THE LEFT HAND

PART VI - VIRTUOSO

TO PETER COLLINSON

TO DAVID HUME

TO GIAMBATISTA BECCARIA

TO COURT DE GEBELIN

TO NOAH WEBSTER

Chronology

Glossary of Correspondents

Editor’s Notes

THE PORTABLE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790) was the first American to achieve international celebrity. From the colonial period of his initial fame through to the twenty-first century, he has been regarded both at home and abroad as the one person who most clearly combines the many facets of the American character. He was the only person to sign all four major documents of the founding of the United States—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Treaty Alliance with France, and the Treaty of Peace with England—and his participation in these momentous events, his rise to wealth from humble beginnings, his practical inventions, such as bifocals, his scientific discoveries, most prominently in the field of electricity, his myriad contributions to both civic improvement and the betterment of everyday life, his philanthropic schemes, his sagacity, and his shrewd (and often earthy) wit all remain freshly available in the lucid prose of his many writings.

LARZER ZIFF has written books on many aspects of American literary and cultural history, including the period of Benjamin Franklin. Research professor at the Johns Hopkins University, he is a winner of the Christian Gauss Award and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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First published in Penguin Books 2005

All rights reserved

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following works:
Manuscript of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin as edited in Benjamin Franklin’s Memoirs:
Parallel Text Edition, Max Farrand, editor (HM 9999). Used by permission of The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, volume 18, November 1790-March 1791, edited by Julian P. Boyd.
Copyright © 1971 by Princeton University Press. .

eISBN : 978-0-143-03954-9

1. Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790. 2. Statesmen—United States—Biography. 3. Scientists—United
States—Biography. 4. Printers—United States—Biography. 5. United States—Politics and
government—To 1775. 6. United States—Politics and government—1775-1783. 7. United States—
Politics and government—1783-1789. I. Ziff, Larzer, 1927- II. Title. III. Series.
E302.F82 2006
973.3’092—dc22
[B] 2005053178