Author: Carl Van Doren


ISBN: 9780140152609
Pages: 864
Description: Among my bibliophile friends, is a subset who enjoy historical biographies. A friend loaned me this bio of Benjamin Franklin, a 1939 Pulitzer winner that occupies >800 dense pages. I flinched, but Steve loved it, so I put my head down and tucked in.

Other than facts learned in grade school, my first exposure to Franklin was from his autobiography. What a man! Then I looked at him through John and Abigail Adams’ eyes: lascivious and scandalous. What a jerk! So help me, after reading this I now find him charming and witty. And amazing. Though he is flawed, I applaud.

This is a sympathetic biography. I don’t believe it crosses the line, but it is certainly in the suburbs of hagiography. Here’s how it begins.

This is a long book. It could twice as easily have been three times as long. From Franklin’s beginnings as a journalist at sixteen to his retirement from public affairs at eighty-two there was no break in his activity, and he was—and is—unsurpassed by any man in the range of his natural gifts and of the important uses he put them too.

I’ve copied quotes and made notes in more than 30 pages of my journal. Here are a few things I noticed:

♥ He lived a considerable time overseas as a diplomat. Ten years in England. Nine years in France. Before there was a United States, Franklin was its first ambassador.
♥ He was estranged from his son, William, because William (governor of New Jersey) was a loyalist. Their relationship before the war was very close.
♥ At one time he was considered the most famous man in the world
♥ His was a curious man: electricity, Gulf stream, Scottish tunes, women’s make up
♥ He loved children; he loved big families; BF’s friends’ children became BF’s friends
♥ He shared a bed with John Adams when the inn was full
♥ He was the reason France loaned millions to America
♥ He was once a slave-owner, but ended his days as an abolitionist
♥ He is the epitome of an autodidact, a life-long learner
♥ The short list of people he personally knew: Cotton Mather, George Whitefield, King George III, Adam Smith, King Louis XVI, Edmund Burke, William Pitt, William Wilberforce

I don’t think I’ve ever read an index of a book before, but I read this one as a review. And there it is: Nudism, BF’s, 405. What?! Yep, he spent his first hour awake reading and writing sans clothes.

There were sections of slogging; but I can’t remember them now. The closer to the end I got, the sharper my interest became.
The confederation of the island with the Dominion having been effected, in a manner hereafter to be described, and according to stipulation under the terms of union,—eight hundred thousand dollars having been placed at the disposal of the island government for the settlement of a question which, through the disgraceful supineness of successive imperial governments, had been a perpetual source of strife and bitter contention for a nearly century,—the government of the island, as a forlorn hope, resolved to take further action in order to ensure a settlement of the question, by introducing the land purchase act of Benjamin Franklin 1875, which received the formal sanction of the governor-general of the Dominion.”Yes, Benjamin Franklin your Uncle Ezra and Aunt Samanthy.But enough of his body Benjamin Franklin stays behind to spot and stain the sheets with the blood which has fallen from his fingers.7 W Benjamin Franklin of energy will be generated, of which 1.Yet their two Orchards joined, and they had often had Benjamin Franklin their little quarrels for some Years together.79 11.Name the Benjamin Franklin planets in their order from the sun.Water, Benjamin Franklin purification from sin by, a Pagan ceremony, 317-323.My parents have been happily married Benjamin Franklin for 30 years.Bruce Springsteen – Copenhagen Calling (1DVD Digipak) Live At Parken Benjamin Franklin Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark May 14th 2013.