Srta.

The
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
of

BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
EDITED AND WITH INTRODUCTION AND
NOTES
BY CHARLES W. ELIOT, L.L.D.

A PENN STATE
ELECTRONIC CLASSICS SERIES
PUBLICATION

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin with introduction and notes edited by Charles W. Eliot is a publication
of the Pennsylvania State University. This Portable
Document file is furnished free and without any charge
ofany kind. Any person using this document file, for
any purpose, and in any way does so at his or her own
risk. Neither the Pennsylvania State University nor Jim
Manis, Faculty Editor, nor anyone associated with the
Pennsylvania State University assumes any responsibility
for the material contained within the document or for
the file as an electronic transmission, in any way.
TheAutobiography of Benjamin Franklin with introduction and notes edited by Charles W. Eliot , the Pennsylvania
State University, Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA
18202-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part
of an ongoing student publication project to bring classical
works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of
those wishing to make use of them, and as such is a part ofthe Pennsylvania State University’s Electronic Classics Series.
Cover design: Jim Manis
Copyright © 2007 The Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity University.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
INTRODUCTION
NOTES
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
ELIOT
EDITED BY CHARLES W. ELIOT, L.L.D.,
F.COMPANY NEW
ANY,
P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY, NEW YORK
(1909)
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
ODUCTOR
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January 6, 1706.
His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice, and
of his seventeen children Benjamin was the youngest son. His schooling
ended at ten, and at twelve he was bound apprentice to his brotherJames,
a printer, who published the “New England Courant.” To this journal he
became a contributor, and later was for a time its nominal editor. But the
brothers quarreled, and Benjamin ran away, going first to New York, and
thence to Philadelphia, where he arrived in October, 1723. He soon obtained work as a printer, but after a few months he was induced by Governor Keith to go to London, where,finding Keith’s promises empty, he
again worked as a compositor till he was brought back to Philadelphia by
a merchant named Denman, who gave him a position in his business. On
Denman’s death he returned to his former trade, and shortly set up a
printing house of his own from which he published “The Pennsylvania
Gazette,” to which he contributed many essays, and which he made a
medium foragitating a variety of local reforms. In 1732 he began to issue
his famous “Poor Richard’s Almanac” for the enrichment of which he
borrowed or composed those pithy utterances of worldly wisdom which
are the basis of a large part of his popular reputation. In 1758, the year in
which he ceases writing for the Almanac, he printed in it “Father Abraham’s
Sermon,” now regarded as the most famouspiece of literature produced
in Colonial America.

3

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Meantime Franklin was concerning himself more and more with public affairs. He set forth a scheme for an Academy, which was taken up
later and finally developed into the University of Pennsylvania; and he
founded an “American Philosophical Society” for the purpose of enabling
scientific men tocommunicate their discoveries to one another. He himself had already begun his electrical researches, which, with other scientific inquiries, he called on in the intervals of money-making and politics
to the end of his life. In 1748 he sold his business in order to get leisure
for study, having now acquired comparative wealth; and in a few years he
had made discoveries that gave him a reputation...