The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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Benjamin Franklin

Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2011; originally published 1791, Engligh

Nonfiction, General

Translated into a dozen languages, printed in hundreds of editions, and read by millions of people, Franklin's autobiography has had an influence perhaps unequalled by any other book by an American writer. Written ostensibly as a letter to his son William, the autobiography offers Franklin’s reflections on philosophy and religion, politics, war, education, material success and the status of women

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Jeanne Gang

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Franklin comes across as funny, arrogant, and (above all) innovative. His autobiography, credited with being the first of its kind, remains my all-time favorite of the memoir genre.

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