Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Benjamin Franklin's account of his own life, written in four installments over nearly twenty years and left unfinished at his death, is among the best-known life stories in American letters.

The Autobiography begins as a letter to his son William, written in England in 1771. It covers his boyhood in Boston, his apprenticeship to his brother James, and his move to Philadelphia. Franklin resumed it in Paris in 1784, adding his plan for moral perfection through thirteen virtues. Further sections, written in 1788 and in the last months of his life, cover his almanac, his electrical experiments, and his mission to London for the Pennsylvania Assembly. It first appeared in French in 1791. This is the Everyman's Library edition, no. 316, from J.M. Dent & Sons of London with E.P. Dutton in New York.

Franklin (1706 to 1790) was a printer, the author of Poor Richard's Almanack, and a scientist. He was the first American ambassador to France and signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Everyman's Library was founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, with Ernest Rhys as editor, to put a wide collection of world literature in affordable pocket-sized hardcovers.