Lawrence, who criticize Franklin's self-portrait. It has gotten rave reviews from people like William Dean Howells, who praise his mastery of the form, and two thumbs down from people like D.H. The Autobiography has been published in many different editions since Part 1 was printed – in French – in 1791, and remains 'the only enduring best-seller written in America before the nineteenth century, as well as the most popular autobiography ever written' ( source). While there's a lot of material here, there's also a lot we don't know. (Part of the reason he wasn't done with the book by then was because he took two big writing breaks, between 1771 to 17 to 1789.) One challenge the book poses for us, then, is that it doesn't cover a lot of the interesting and important stuff that happened in Franklin's life, like the American Revolution or the time he spent working as a diplomat in Paris. The persona that emerges in the Autobiography is one of the more fully drawn personalities we're likely to see in this genre.įranklin began writing the Autobiography in 1771, but before he could finish writing his whole life story, he died, in 1790. In a way, Franklin's rewriting his life in what can be seen as a 'More Elegant Edition' of prose but, instead of finding himself in heaven, he's leaving himself in literature. At the beginning of the book he even claims that he's 'recollecting' his life because it's impossible to relive it. In his book, Franklin draws a vivid picture of his early life and the person he was, telling us about the many contributions he made to society and the kinds of experiences he had. Technically, Franklin's talking about heaven here, but, funnily enough, he could also be talking about his Autobiography. After death, his soul or his 'Contents' will be reprinted – given a certain kind of immortality – in another book. Here, he compares his body to the pages and binding of the book, and his soul to those ideas contained within it. In other words, at age 22 Franklin was already obsessed with measuring his life in books. Franklin wrote that after he dies, his body will be like 'Like the Cover of an Old Book / Its Contents torn Out,' and that those 'Contents' will 'Appear once More / In a New and More Elegant Edition' ( source).

Aside from the fact that this was kind of a pessimistic, suffering artist thing to do, what's really interesting is his description of what he imagined his legacy would be. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Introductionīenjamin Franklin was only 22 years old when he wrote himself an epitaph ( source).

Franklin the autobiography