Franklin's Autobiography is the only enduring best-seller written in America before the nineteenth century, as well as the most popular autobiography ever written.

Acknowledgments

xi

(2)

Introduction

xiii

(4)

Note on the Text

xvii

(4)

Map: Franklin Enters Philadelphia, Sunday, October 6, 1723

xxi

The Text of the Autobiography

1

(204)

The Autobiography

1

(146)

Textual Notes

147

(19)

Franklin's Journey from Boston to Philadelphia, 1723

166

(3)

The Outline of the Autobiography

169

(4)

Biographical Notes

173

(32)

Backgrounds

205

(26)

Excerpts from Franklin's Letters Mentioning the Autobiography

205

(2)

To Mathew Carey, August 10, 1786

205

(1)

To the Duke de La Rochefoucauld, October 22, 1788

205

(1)

To Benjamin Vaughan, October 24, 1788

205

(1)

To William Vaughan, December 9, 1788

206

(1)

To Benjamin Vaughan, June 3, 1789

206

(1)

To Benjamin Vaughan, November 2, 1789

207

(1)

To M. Le Veillard, November 13, 1789

207

(1)

"Authentic Memoir of Dr. Franklin"

207

(1)

Aneedotes Recorded by John Jay

208

(4)

[Robert Hunter Morris]

209

(1)

[Andrew Hamilton]

209

(1)

[Writing for the New Jersey Assembly]

210

(1)

[Quaker Attitude toward Warfare]

211

(1)

EXCERPTS FROM FRANKLIN'S WRITINGS ON WEALTH, THE ART OF VIRTUE, AND PERFECTION

212

(19)

Wealth

212

(11)

From Poor Richard, March, 1736

212

(1)

To Cadwallader Colden, Philadelphia, September 29, 1748

212

(1)

To Abiah Franklin, Philadelphia, April, 12, 1750

213

(1)

To William Strahan, Philadelphia, June 2, 1750

214

(1)

To Peter Collinson, Philadelphia, November 5, 1756

215

(1)

[Benjamin Rush on Franklin]

215

(1)

To Jane Mecom, London, December 30, 1770

215

(2)

To Thomas Cushing, London, June 10, 1771

217

(1)

To David Hartley, Passy, France, February 2, 1780

218

(1)

Benjamin Vaughan to Lord Shelburne, Dover, November 24, 1782

219

(1)

To Robert Morris, Passy, France, December 25, 1783

220

(1)

To Benjamin Webb, Passy, France, April 22, 1784

220

(1)

To Benjamin Vaughan, Passy, France, July 26, 1784

221

(1)

[Private Property Is a Creature of Society, November, 1789]

221

(2)

The Art of Virtue

223

(3)

[Poor Richard on Self-Improvement, 1749]

223

(1)

To Lord Kames, May 3, 1760

224

(1)

To Joseph Priestley, September 19, 1772

225

(1)

Perfection

226

(5)

Franklin's Epitaph, 1728

226

(1)

[Franklin's Junto Query on Human Perfection, 1732]

226

(1)

[An Early Version of the Art of Virtue, 1758]

227

(1)

[On Perfection in Human Institutions, 1770]

227

(1)

[On Religious Tests for Citizenship, 1780]

228

(3)

Criticism

231

(130)

CONTEMPORARY OPINIONS

231

(18)

David Hume

David Hume to Franklin, Edinburgh, May 10, 1762

231

(1)

Mather Byles

Mather Byles to Franklin, Boston, late 1765

232

(1)

Franklin in the Cockpit The Pennsylvania Gazette Report, 1774

232

(3)

Benjamin Vaughan's Account, 1779

234

(1)

House of Lords, February 1, 1775 William Pitt, Lord Chatham, vs. John Montague, Lord Sandwich, on Franklin

235

(1)

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke to Count Patrick D'Arcy, October 5, 1775

236

(1)

Peter Oliver

Excerpt from Origins & Progress of the American Rebellion

237

(4)

Richard Price

Richard Price to Franklin, May 1790

241

(2)

Anonymous

Excerpt from The Bee, February 27, 1793

243

(1)

John Adams

John Adams on Franklin, May 15, 1811

244

(5)

NINETEENTH-CENTURY OPINIONS

249

(30)

Joseph Dennie

From The Port Folio, 1801

249

(4)

Francis, Lord Jeffrey

From the Edinburgh Review, 1806

253

(2)

Charles Brockden Brown

From Literary Magazine, 1806

255

(1)

John Foster

From The Eclectic Review, 1818

255

(2)

John Keats

To George and Georgiana Keats, October 14-31, 1818

257

(1)

Edgar Allan Poe

The Business Man

258

(8)

Leigh Hunt

From Hunt's Autobiography

266

(2)

Herman Melville

From Israel Potter

268

(2)

Anonymous

From The Nation, 1868

270

(2)

Mark Twain

The Late Benjamin Franklin

272

(2)

Frederick Jackson

Turner From The Dial, 1887

274

(1)

William Dean Howells

From "Editor's Study," April, 1888

275

(4)

From "Editor's Study," July, 1888

276

(1)

From "Editor's Study," January, 1890

277

(1)

From "Editor's Easy Chair," October, 1905

277

(2)

TWENTIETH-CENTURY OPINIONS

279

(82)

Max Weber

Excerpt from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

279

(10)

D. H. Lawrence

Benjamin Franklin

289

(10)

W. Somerset Maugham

[The Classic Books of America]

299

(1)

Charles L. Sanford

An American Pilgrim's Progress

300

(13)

Robert Freeman Sayre

The Worldly Franklin and the Provincial Critics

313

(12)

John William Ward

Who Was Benjamin Franklin?

325

(10)

David Levin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: The Puritan Experimenter in Life and Art

335

(14)

J.A. Leo Lemay

Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream

349

(12)

Bibliography

361

(16)

Key Editions of Franklin's Autobiography

361

(1)

Abbreviations and Bibliography for the Annotations and the Biographical Notes

362

(3)

A Selective, Annotated Bibliography of Twentieth-Century Criticism

365

(10)

Authors

375

(2)

Index

377

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Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

9780393952940

0393952940

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