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Franklin's Autobiography

by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

  • Free to read
  • 5 hours to read
  • 12 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"Franklin's Autobiography" by Benjamin Franklin is an unfinished memoir written between 1771 and 1790. This influential work chronicles Franklin's life from childhood through age 52, divided into four parts written at different periods. Franklin recounts his early years in Boston, his apprenticeship with his brother, his journey to Philadelphia, and his rise as a printer and entrepreneur. The narrative includes his famous pursuit of moral perfection through thirteen virtues and the founding of civic institutions like the Library Company of Philadelphia.

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  • Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

Read the opening

Printer

OF

(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
In a new and elegant edition,
Revised and corrected
by
The Author.

[Footnote 1: See pp. 198-206.]

[Footnote 2: The time of Braddock's defeat.]

[Footnote 3: When the old duties "upon all rum, spirits, molasses, syrups, sugar," etc., were renewed, and extended to other articles.]

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Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Printer
  3. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
  4. Organization of Militia
  5. Advertisement
  6. B. Franklin
  7. B. Franklin
  8. Letters Referred to on Page 89
  9. The Way to Wealth
  10. Proverbs from Poor Richard's Almanac
  11. Notes and Suggestions
  12. Eclectic English Classics

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About this edition

This free edition of Franklin's Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #36151, released 2011-05-18. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Biographies, Classics of Literature, American Literature, History - American.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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