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. As such it deserves to be offered to twentieth-century readers in the most accurate form possible, and so it is, in this Norton Critical Edition, the first text to be edited directly from the manuscripts, rather than perpetuating the errors of previous editions. The text is fully annotated, and the reading is assisted by helpful footnotes, biographical sketches, and two maps. In "Backgrounds", the editors collect Franklin’s most important reflections on the Autobiography’s purpose, some anecdotes, and a number of Franklin’s statements on wealth, the art of virtue, and perfection.  Materials in "Criticism" range from contemporary opinions―which reveal that readers were divided then as they are now about the art of the Autobiography―to essays written in the twentieth century. Nineteenth-century opinions include those of John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, and William Dean Howells, among others. The twentieth-century materials include D. H. Lawrence’s celebrated essay, an excerpt from Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and the perspectives of such recent critics as Charles L. Sanford, Robert Freeman Sayre, John William Ward, and David Devin.

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Zall, P.M.

LeMay, J.A. Leo

Professionals & Academics

W.W.Norton&Company

Named "one of the best books of 2006" by The New York Sun
Described by Carl Van Doren as "a harmonious human multitude," Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American of his time, of perhaps any time. His life and careers were so varied and successful that he remains, even today, the epitome of the self-made man. Born into a humble tradesman's family, this adaptable genius rose to become an architect of the world's first democracy, a leading light in Enlightenment science, and a major creator of what has come to be known as the American character. Journalist, musician, politician, scientist, humorist, inventor, civic leader, printer, writer, publisher, businessman, founding father, and philosopher, Franklin is a touchstone for America's egalitarianism.
The first volume traces young Franklin's life to his marriage in 1730. It traces the New England religious, political, and cultural contexts, exploring previously unknown influences on his philosophy and writing, and attributing new writings to him. After his move to Philadelphia, made famous in his Autobiography, Franklin became the Water American in London in 1725, where he was welcomed into that city's circle of freethinkers. Upon his return to the colonies, the sociable Franklin created a group of young friends, the Junto, devoted to self-improvement and philanthropy. He also started his own press and began to edit and publish the Pennsylvania Gazette, which became the most popular American paper of its day and the first to consistently feature American news.

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 176-173

Historical

University of Pennsylvania Press

Named "one of the best books of 2006" by The New York Sun
Described by Carl Van Doren as "a harmonious human multitude," Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American of his time, of perhaps any time. His life and careers were so varied and successful that he remains, even today, the epitome of the self-made man. Born into a humble tradesman's family, this adaptable genius rose to become an architect of the world's first democracy, a leading light in Enlightenment science, and a major creator of what has come to be known as the American character. Journalist, musician, politician, scientist, humorist, inventor, civic leader, printer, writer, publisher, businessman, founding father, philosopher, Franklin is a touchstone for America's egalitarianism.
Volume 2 takes Franklin from his marriage in 1730 to his retirement as a printer at the beginning of 1748, examining the mysteries of the illegitimate William Franklin's birth and mother and Franklin's increasing civic activities—starting the Library Company in Philadelphia in 1731, forming Pennsylvania's first volunteer fire company, and becoming an advocate for a clean Philadelphia environment. J. A. Leo Lemay assesses Franklin's numerous writings, attributing to him for the first time a deistic Indian speech, remarking on his use of the second African American persona in journalism, and analyzing his publishing sensation of 1747, The Speech of Miss Polly Baker. These belletristic works are complemented by Franklin's religious, political, and scientific writings, which he produced prodigiously.

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 173-1747

Described as "a harmonious human multitude," Ben Franklin's life and careers were so varied and successful that he remains, even today, the epitome of the self-made man. Born into a humble tradesman's family, this adaptable genius rose to become an architect of the world's first democracy, a leading light in Enlightenment science, and a major creator of what has come to be known as the American character. Journalist, musician, politician, scientist, humorist, inventor, civic leader, printer, writer, publisher, businessman, founding father, philosopher—a genius in all fields and a bit of a magician in some.
Volume 3 begins in the year 1748, when Franklin was known in Pennsylvania as clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly and in the Middle Colonies as the printer and editor of Poor Richard's Almanac and the Pennsylvania Gazette, the best-known colonial publications. By the middle of 1757, where this volume leaves off, he had become famous in Pennsylvania as a public-spirited citizen and soldier in the conflicts of the Seven Years' War; well known throughout America as a writer, politician, and the most important theorist and patriot of the American empire; and renowned in the western world as a natural philosopher. This volume tells the story of that transformation.

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 3: Soldier, Scientist, and Politician, 1748-1757

The Oldest Revolutionary, Essays on Benjamin Franklin

University of Penn.

Ebenezer Kinnersley was born on 30 November 1711, in Gloucester, England. Before he was three years old, his family moved to America and settled near Lower Dublin, Pennsylvania. Largely home-educated by his father, William Kinnersley, a Baptist minister, he first became widely known when, at the height of the Great Awakening in 1740, he delivered at the Philadelphia Baptist Church an address attacking the emotional excesses of the popular revivalistic ministers.
Kinnersley is perhaps best known today, however, as Benjamin Franklin's collaborator in the experiments in electricity. Franklin wrote in his Autobiography that he suggested Kinnersley give lectures on the subject and that he drew up a syllabus for that purpose. Although Kinnersley was not the first to give popular lectures on electricity, nor the only one who did so during the twenty-five years he was most active, no other lecturer was as popular, successful, or original as he. He was, indeed, the greatest of the popular lecturers in colonial America—the forerunners of the nineteenth-century lyceum movement—and was the only person in the colonies, beside Franklin, who made significant contributions to the science of electricity.
In addition to his contributions to early American religious and scientific thought, Kinnersley was the first Professor of English and Oratory at the University of Pennsylvania (then the Philadelphia College). As such he may have been the first person to hold the title Professor of English.
This biography should be of importance to students of colonial culture, to Franklin students, and to those interested in the history of science or education in colonial America, as well as in the history of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.

Ebenezer Kinnersley: Franklin's Friend

University of Pennsylvania Press Anniversary Collection

Here is a study of the character, writings, and ideals of Captain John Smith, popularly recognized as the greatest English explorer and colonizer of his time - perhaps of all time. Reading closely the facts of Smith's life and, especially, Smith's own words, J. A. Leo Lemay offers the fullest appreciation to date of Smith's contributions to American colonization and culture. The result is a new interpretation and appreciation of the man who, more than any other of his time, saw the potential of America for creating a new society unencumbered by the feudal vestiges of the Old World. Smith fulfilled the heroic roles of both the European Renaissance and the American frontier. Before sailing for Jamestown in 1607, he fought in two major European theatres of war, finally serving as captain of a Christian cavalry company in the Balkans fighting against the Turks. In America, Smith became early Virginia's most famous and feared Indian fighter. Powhatan himself testified that "if a twig but breake every one cryeth there commeth Captaine Smith". According to Lemay, Smith was also one of the 17th century's greatest political and social egalitarians and visionaries. His American Dream prefigured and contributed to the ideals that Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow, James Madison, and other founders of the American republic built into their aspirations for a new nation and new society. The author describes Smith as an explorer whose skill was unmatched in his time. His maps of the Chesapeake Bay area and the New England coast provided essential information for the colonization of the Virginia, Maryland, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay colonies and remained the most reliable guides to those areas until nearly the end of the century. Lemay also shows Smith to have been a skilled diplomat and trader who treated the Indians fairly and with respect. He was, in the author's words, "the best friend among the whites that the Indians ever has as governor in early Virginia". He sympathized with the Indians' situation and appreciated their point of view, although he conceded that in the end "progress" would prevail.

The American Dream of Captain John Smith

History

Americas

Univ of Virginia Pr

By the mid-nineteenth century, Captain John Smith, the early Colonial explorer and settler, was a well-known figure in American history. The story of how the Powhatan princess Pocahontas saved him in 1607 from execution by her tribe appeared in all the standard American histories; numerous plays, novels, and poems were devoted to the episode. Starting in the 1860s, however, scholars began to question Smith's published accounts of the Pocahontas incident, and a controversy ensued, with Henry Adams becoming Smith's most famous detractor. Today many scholars continue to regard Smith as a vainglorious braggart who lied about his rescue. Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? is the first full analysis of the historiography of this debate. Examining all the primary and secondary evidence, J. A. Leo Lemay persuasively demonstrates that the incident did in fact occur.As Lemay notes, Adams's case against Smith (first published in 1867) hinged primarily on the fact that Smith's earliest accounts of his experiences in Virginia made no references to Pocahontas's intervention. It was not until 1624 that Smith published the well-known account of his rescue by Pocahontas. Following Adams and others who attacked Smith, a Hungarian scholar asserted in 1890 that Smith had also bragged and lied about his experiences in eastern Europe during the Hungarian wars against the Turks; this claim added fuel to the general skepticism about Smith's veracity as a historical reporter. Scholarly findings in the twentieth century rehabilitated Smith's reputation somewhat by showing that the descriptions of the places and battles he had witnessed during his European adventures were accurate; still, many felt that no convincing evidence existed to prove the Pocahontas story. A valuable rebuttal to Adams had been published by William Wirt Henry in 1875, but it was largely ignored and forgotten.As he reevaluates the evidence, Lemay deduces that many old Virginia hands could have learned the story only from the Powhatan Indians. Moreover, even Smith's enemies - who were in a position to refute his story - never expressed doubt that Pocahontas had saved the Captain. The Reverend Samuel Purchas, who interviewed the Virginia colonists and the Indians who visited England, believed and repeated Smith's description of the Incident. Finally, according to Lemay, Henry Adams's original attack on Smith was actually written during the Civil War as a South-baiting polemic and suppresses pertinent evidence.A tightly argued study, Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? refutes the outright skeptics and effectively reverses the prevailing judgment that the truth will never be known.

Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?

Univ of Georgia Pr

By the mid-nineteenth century, Captain John Smith, the early colonial explorer and settler, was a well-known figure in American history. The story of how, in 1607, the Powhatan princess Pocahontas saved him from execution by her tribe appeared in all the standard American histories. Numerous plays, novels, and poems were devoted to the episode. Starting in the 1860s, however, scholars began to question Smith’s published accounts of the Pocahontas incident, and a controversy ensued, with Henry Adams becoming Smith’s most famous detractor. Today many scholars continue to regard Smith as a vainglorious braggart who lied about his rescue.J. A. Leo Lemay offers the first full analysis of the historiography of this debate. Examining all of the primary and secondary evidence, he persuasively demonstrates that the incident did in fact occur. A tightly argued study, Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? not only refutes the outright skeptics; it effectively reverses the prevailing judgment that the truth will never be known.

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

University of Georgia Press

Men of letters in colonial Maryland

University of Tennessee Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by LeMay, J.A. Leo. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by LeMay, J.A. Leo

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by LeMay, J.A. Leo. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition)

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 176-173

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 173-1747

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 3: Soldier, Scientist, and Politician, 1748-1757

The Oldest Revolutionary, Essays on Benjamin Franklin

Ebenezer Kinnersley: Franklin's Friend

The American Dream of Captain John Smith

Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?

Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?

Men of letters in colonial Maryland