#Benjamin franklin autobiography

[uwmspeccoll]

Marbled Monday

We're jumping back in to Marbled Monday with a splash! This wavy teal, gold, and cream marbling was stumbled upon while we were doing some record clean-up in our compact shelving area. It is a Spanish Wave pattern that is created by wiggling the paper while putting it onto the surface of the water bath that holds the marbling pigments. This particular iteration of the pattern is quite wigglesome, suggesting that the person doing the marbling was moving the paper in a somewhat irregular way rather than in a steady back-and-forth motion.

The book is volume 1 of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Our copy is a second edition from 1818 published by Henry Colburn. Volumes 1 and 2 are about the life of American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), while volumes 3 and 4 contain his correspondence, and volumes 5 and 6 contain "posthumous and other writings." We only hold volumes 1 and 2 of the 6. Most of Franklin's life story published here is an autobiography, with additional writing about his later years contributed by his grandson, who was the illegitimate son of Franklin's illegitimate son as well as a failed diplomat and real estate speculator, William Temple Franklin (1760-1823). Temple Franklin, as he was known, became his grandfather's secretary at the age of 16 and was named his literary heir.

View more Marbled Monday posts here.

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

[thebeautifulbook]

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (Chicago: Conkey, 1900)

source

[n2-crisis]

What if you wanted to play baldurs gate but Benjamin Franklin said no from beyond the grave

[roreadsrandomly]

There is nothing that will reach for your heart faster than, a book that is written with this in mind. People pouring out their heart, genuinely talking to people, on the other side, is why people still read their writings, decades later.

Benjamin Franklin's great "Autobiography" is so heartfelt and lovely because it (Part One) was a letter from the father to his son William. He was trying to teach him some life lessons.

Any book will remain successful and timeless is when it flows from the heart with genuine advice not a thesis but a letter.

We need to write more letters, poems, songs even if they are to ourselves to get in touch with our inner thoughts. It helps.

There is nothing that attracts me more than a deep, honest, serene, and truly meaningful conversation.

[pauldouglaslovell]

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Book Review.

Just begun. I already like the simple writing, not too wordy at all...  

Well I must say that ended abruptly. Regardless that I enjoyed what I read I was surprised it wasn't a full autobiography, and I can't lie, it did spoil the experience, a little. Hence 4 stars. 

Benjamin Franklin was an interesting character, who lived in the 1700s when America as we know it, was in it’s infancy and still ruled by Britain. Very enlightening the colonial arrogance of these times.  

Franklin, in my opinion, possessed the right amount of religion, he was tolerant of ALL faiths. He was also a vegetarian and gave great business advice and life tips. Some proper gems that I will actually take on board. Here are his 13 virtues to live by… his personal work-in-progress, something he adopted over time. (archaic spelling included)

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Thinking of reading it? Go for it, it won’t take long but the impression it leaves will last a lifetime. 

[linusjf]

Benjamin Franklin: Knowledgeable investment

Benjamin Franklin (Photo credit: cliff1066™) “An investment in knowledge still yields the best returns.” —Benjamin Franklin.

[anniesqueendom]

am i literally the only one who reads autobiographies and feels like the person is my bestie? Like I am reading BenFranklin's autobiography and right before picking it up I am like "time to spend time with one of my favs" and I remember reading indra nooyis autobiography and just putting it down sometimes and clapping and being like Yass queen! Like please tell me I am NOT the only one who does this lol

[whencyclopedia]

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American printer, writer, scientist, inventor, and diplomat, often regarded as a Founding Father of the United States. He rose to prominence as editor of The Pennsylvania Gazette and author of Poor Richard's Almanack before winning scientific renown for experiments with electricity. He also played a major role in the American Revolution (1765-1789).

Apprenticeship in Boston

Benjamin Franklin was born on 17 January 1706, in the house his parents leased on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts. He was, as noted in his autobiography, the "youngest Son of the youngest Son for five Generations back" (46). His father, Josiah Franklin, had emigrated to Boston partially because his older brothers received all the family inheritance in England. Josiah was a well-respected chandler with 17 children across two marriages; Ben was his tenth son and fifteenth child, born to his second wife, Abiah Folger. Ben learned to read at an early age and his father sent him to Boston Latin School, with the intention that he one day join the clergy. But after two years, Josiah was forced to pull Ben out of school due to lack of money. Instead, Josiah arranged for twelve-year-old Ben to be apprenticed to his elder brother James, a printer.

Ben quickly showed an aptitude for the printing trade and, in his free time, read voraciously and refined his writing skills. In 1721, James Franklin founded The New-England Courant, only the third newspaper to appear in Boston. When James invited readers to contribute to the paper, 16-year-old Ben took the opportunity. In 1722, he penned 14 satirical essays under the pseudonym 'Silence Dogood,' presented as a middle-aged widow. As Dogood, Franklin satirized Massachusetts society: he mocked the haughtiness of Harvard College students, questioned the purpose of women's hoop petticoats, and suggested changes to funeral eulogies. Dogood's irreverence soon made her essays the talk of the town, and Franklin listened with pleasure as James and his friends tried to guess the writer's identity. When James was briefly arrested for publishing material critical of the colonial governor, Ben took over the paper, using Dogood to advocate for free speech.

Young Ben Franklin at the Printing Press

Charles E. Mills (Public Domain)

James was released from jail a month later on the condition that he not print or publish work in The New-England Courant. To circumvent this, he publicly stepped aside as publisher and let Ben run the paper, although James intended to keep managing things behind the scenes. To support the ruse, James publicly released Ben from the terms of his apprenticeship, although he had him sign a secret agreement in which he promised to fulfill the terms of his original indenture. Subsequently, the brothers often quarreled over the direction of the paper, and James became jealous upon discovering Ben was the author behind Silence Dogood, while Ben believed himself to be James' intellectual superior. In 1723, Ben left home and fled to New York City; although this broke the terms of the secret agreement, he was confident that James would not go to the authorities for fear of revealing his own duplicity. Franklin briefly stayed in New York but, after failing to find work, he moved on to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Continue reading...

[the-woild-is-y-erster]

can't believe i'm getting sad about benjamin fucking franklin of all people but i have to read his autobiography for school and i just!!!!! i keep getting upset, because it's so easy to disconnect him from being a person, because he's a Founding Father™️ and i forget that he was a kid once too, he stole rocks from workers to make a wharf in the creek with his friends, he wanted to be a sailor, and his parents died when he was 35 and 43 and his father died a year after his daughter was born

but can you imagine? he was the youngest brother with two younger sisters, so imagine being in your thirties and losing your father, then your mom. and then becoming a famous founding father and having one of the greatest legacies ever.

and you don't have a mom or dad to turn to, or talk to at all, and you're 67 when you overthrow the greatest superpower of a country, and you're 67 when you have your own family and you have a legacy already and you're famous and you forget about your parents until you realize they aren't there. your father never got to see his grandkids grow up, and your mom isn't there to cry with you when your own wife passed before you could go home and say "look! look, and see the great things i've done and be proud!"

because you're 26 when your first child dies, and 35 when your father passes. 

43 when your mother dies. 

65 when your beloved wife dies.

and 67 when you overthrow a global superpower, and who that you love is there to see it?

[sabinahahn]

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

In his Autobiography, Franklin famously outlined a scheme to achieve “moral perfection” according to a thirteen-week plan. Each week was devoted to a particular virtue—temperance, cleanliness, moderation, et cetera—and his offenses against these virtues were tracked on a calendar. Franklin thought that if he could maintain his devotion to one virtue for an entire week, it would become a habit; then he could move on to the next virtue, successively making fewer and fewer offenses (indicated on the calendar by a black mark) until he had completely reformed himself and would thereafter need only occasional bouts of moral maintenance.

From Daily Rituals by Mason Currey

#dailyrituals #benjaminfranklin #inktober

[macaron-n-cheese]

Benjamin Franklin's autobiography actually slaps, I don't even care that I have to read 80 pages of it by Tuesday.

[thebeautifulbook]

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Art binding.

[vispoarchive]

Sarah J. Sloat. source: Franklin, Benjamin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Penguin Books, 1986.

Under a Warm Green Linden no. 12 (2021)

[mylittledarkag3]

How many have you read out of the hundred?

Me: 64/100

Reblog & share your results

1. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

2. "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

3. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

4. "1984" by George Orwell

5. "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

6. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez

7. "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

8. "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

9. "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

10. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

11. "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville

12. "The Odyssey" by Homer

13. "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë

14. "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy

15. "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

16. "The Iliad" by Homer

17. "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

18. "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo

19. "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes

20. "Middlemarch" by George Eliot

21. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

22. "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

23. "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

24. "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen

25. "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" by Victor Hugo

26. "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells

27. "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck

28. "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer

29. "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James

30. "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling

31. "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse

32. "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri

33. "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

34. "The Trial" by Franz Kafka

35. "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen

36. "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas

37. "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

38. "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift

39. "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

40. "Emma" by Jane Austen

41. "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe

42. "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy

43. "The Republic" by Plato

44. "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad

45. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle

46. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

47. "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

48. "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

49. "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

50. "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens

51. "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

52. "The Plague" by Albert Camus

53. "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

54. "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

55. "The Red and the Black" by Stendhal

56. "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

57. "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

58. "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

59. "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

60. "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

61. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle

62. "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins

63. "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe

64. "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson

65. "Ulysses" by James Joyce

66. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe

67. "Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray

68. "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett

69. "Walden Two" by B.F. Skinner

70. "Watership Down" by Richard Adams

71. "White Fang" by Jack London

72. "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys

73. "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne

74. "Wise Blood" by Flannery O'Connor

75. "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" by Margaret Fuller

76. "Women in Love" by D.H. Lawrence

77. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig

78. "The Aeneid" by Virgil

79. "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton

80. "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

81. "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

82. "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" by Benjamin Franklin

83. "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin

84. "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler

85. "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

86. "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk

87. "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov

88. "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

89. "The Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

90. "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau

91. "The Clue in the Crumbling Wall" by Carolyn Keene

92. "The Code of the Woosters" by P.G. Wodehouse

93. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

94. "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas

95. "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller

96. "The Crying of Lot 49" by Thomas Pynchon

97. "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

98. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy

99. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon

100. "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells

[inspired-word]

“I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.” --The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.

George Washington said;

“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” --The Writings of Washington, pp. 342-343.

John Adams said:

“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be.” --Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.

John Hancock said;

“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” --History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.

Benjamin Franklin said;

“Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshiped.”

[datasoong47]

Saint Monday is the tradition of absenteeism on a Monday. Saint Tuesday is the less common extension of this to a Tuesday.[1] The tradition of taking Monday off has been common among craft workers since at least the seventeenth century,[2] when the workweek ran from Monday to Saturday as had been the custom and expectation for centuries. In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin refers to the practice, saying of his youthful employment in a London printing house, "My constant attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended me to the master".[3] Later writers often ascribed Saint Monday to the organisation and improvement of working class life which occurred with industrialisation. Pay day was typically Saturday, and therefore workers often had spare money on Monday. In other industries, business owners had become accustomed to workers not showing up on Mondays and were prepared to put up with it. Food would commonly be left over from the weekend, thus workers did not need to visit the works canteen, and since many workers were taking the day off, there was often company to be had.[4] The tradition declined during the nineteenth century, but the provision of entertainments, such as railway excursions, was initially common on Saturday and Monday, and it was not until the middle of the century that workers were able to enjoy a weekend. In part, the decline can be attributed to the adoption of half-day working on Saturdays, which legitimated leisure time for workers.