Research Catalog

Title

Benjamin Franklin's autobiography : an authoritative text, contexts, criticism / edited by Joyce E. Chaplin.

Author

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

Publication

New York : W.W. Norton, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Chaplin, Joyce E.

Description

xxx, 441 p. : ill., maps; 22 cm.

Summary

"The only edition of the celebrated Autobiography that includes the long-missing and recently identified "Wagon Letters." Written during the most eventful years of Benjamin Franklin's life (1771-90), the Autobiography is one of the most influential memoirs in history. This newly edited Norton Critical Edition includes an introduction that explains the history of the Autobiography within the larger history of the life-writing genre as well as within the history of celebrity. The text is accompanied by new and expanded explanatory annotations and by a map, an illustration, and six facsimiles. "Contexts" presents a broader view of Franklin's life with a journal entry from a 1726 voyage, correspondence, a Poor Richard piece on ambition and fame, Franklin's views on self-improvement, and his last will (and codicil). "Criticism" draws on a wealth of material that reflects both the wide range of Franklin's achievements and the global impact of his life and memoirs. New international voices in "Contemporary Opinions" include Immanuel Kant, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez, and José Francisco Correia da Serra. "Nineteenth-Century Opinions" includes Humphry Davy on Franklin's discovery of electricity as well as Empress Shōken of Japan's Franklin-inspired poem. Finally, "Modern Opinions" reprints important pieces: I.B. Cohen on Franklin and the Autobiography's importance to science; Michael Warner's theoretical interpretation of the practices of writing and printing and what they tell us about Franklin; and Peter Stallybrass's insightful and engaging history-of-the-book perspective on Franklin's writing generally and the Autobiography specifically."--Publisher's website.

Series Statement

Norton critical edition

Uniform Title

• Autobiography
• Norton critical edition.

Alternative Title

Autobiography

Subject

• Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
• Statesmen > United States > Biography

Genre/Form

• Autobiographies
• Biographies
• Autobiographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• The text of the autobiography : The autobiography -- "A quire book of letters" -- Outline of the autobiography -- Guide to people mentioned in the autobiography -- Contexts : Journal of a voyage, 1726 / excerpts from Franklin's letters mentioning the autobiography -- "Authentic memoir of Dr. Franklyn" / excerpts from Franklin's writings and correspondence -- Ambition and fame : From Poor Richard Improved, 1750 -- From Poor Richard Improved,1758 -- To Sarah (Franklin) Bache, June 3, 1779 -- From Benjamin Vaughan, May 1785 -- From Jane Mecom, July 21, 1786 -- Wealth : To Cadwallader Colden, September 29, 1748 -- To William Strahan, June 2, 1750 -- To Jane Mecom, December 30, 1770 -- To Thomas Cushing, June 10, 1771 -- Benjamin Vaughan to Lord Shelburne, November 24, 1782 -- To Robert Morris, December 25, 1783 -- To Benjamin Vaughan, July 26, 1784 -- Last will and testament, 1788, and codicil, 1789 -- Self-improvement : Franklin's epitaph, 1728 -- Franklin's Junto query on human perfection, 1732 -- Poor Richard on self-improvement, 1749 -- Rules for making oneself a disagreeable companion, 1750 -- To Lord Kames, May 3, 1760 -- To Abiah Franklin, April 12, 1750 -- To Joseph Priestley, September 19, 1772.
• Criticism -- Contemporary opinions : The modern Prometheus / Immanuel Kant -- To Franklin, May 10, 1762 / David Hume -- Franklin in the Cockpit / The Pennsylvania Gazette Report, 1774 -- Benjamin Vaughan's account, 1779 -- To Count Patrick D'Arcy, October 5, 1775 / Edmund Burke -- From the New-Jersey Gazette, December 31, 1777 -- From Origins & progress of the American rebellion / Peter Oliver -- To Franklin, May 1790 / Richard Price -- Eulogy for Franklin before the National Assembly of France, 1790 / Honorè Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau -- A brief eulogy for Benjamin Franklin, 1790 / José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez -- Eulogy for Franklin to the Royal Academy of Science, Lisbon, 1791 / José Francisco Correia da Serra -- On Franklin, May 15, 1811 / John Adams -- Nineteenth-century opinions : From the Edinburgh Review, 1806 / Francis, Lord Jeffrey -- From the Literary Magazine, 1806 / Charles Brockden Brown -- To George and Georgiana Keats, October 14*-31, 1818 / John Keats -- Historical sketch of electrical discovery / Humphry Davy -- The business man / Edgar Allan Poe -- From Autobiography / Leigh Hunt -- From Israel Potter / Herman Melville -- The late Benjamin Franklin / Mark Twain -- A Franklinian poem, c. 1890 / Empress Shōken of Japan -- From The Dial, May 1887 / Frederick Jackson Turner -- From the Editor's Study, April 1888, from Editor's Study, July 1888, from Editor's Study, January 1890, from Editor's Easy Chair, October 1905 / William Dean Howells -- Recent opinions : From The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism / Max Weber -- Benjamin Franklin / D.H. Lawrence -- The classic books of America / W. Somerset Maugham -- Franklin and science / I.B. Cohen -- The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin : the Puritan experimenter in life and art / David Levin -- Franklin : the representational politics of the man of letters / Michael Warner -- Benjamin Franklin : printed collections and erasable writing / Peter Stallybrass -- Benjamin Franklin : a chronology.
• The Autobiography -- "A Quire Book of Letters" -- The Outline of the Autobiography -- A Guide to People Mentioned in the Autobiography.

ISBN

• 9780393935615 (pbk.)
• 0393935612 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^2011052085

OCLC

• 711051802
• SCSB-11781349

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library