There was Another Bookish Lad in the Town, with whom I was Intimately Acquainted...

On Benjamin Franklin | For that High-Octane Inspiration 

Autobiographies have such a charm and delight of their own! 

And so do life writings! And so do memoirs! And so do confessions, and so do diaries, and so do personal journal entries!

Indeed, their quaint charm and their ‘awesome wonder’ give them their peculiar ‘thisness’ or ‘aboutness’, coming as it does with their innate cultural baggage and lived experiences galore!!!

In this respect, we human beings have always been amazing narrative beings! 

In other words, we are the sum total of our life's narratives! So yes! our 'Self' is in reality the product of all our life-narratives woven together into a rich tapestry of sorts! 

Narratives that integrate memories, weave nostalgia, and plait past pictures into a myriad, culturally grounded discourse. 

As such, our life stories act as highly effective cultural texts too! Autobiographies are a delightful case in point! 

They not only help us delve into the minds and the hearts, the lives and times of the great minds of yore, from their own points of view, but also help us get an insightful glimpse into their lived realities that would act real ensamples to us - readers of all hues - from yonder-yonder times and yonder-yonder places as well! 

This wondrous autobiographical read by Benjamin Franklin, a voracious reader, and one of the founding fathers of the United States, is the bestest bet for an autobiographical reading! 

It’s titled, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and is regarded till date, as one of the bestest examples of how an autobiography should be!

Benjamin Franklin - printer, politician, postmaster, author, scientist, inventor...

It’s no wonder then that his editor quipped on his Autobiography, as 'the most remarkable of all the remarkable histories of our self-made men’!

The youngest son of seventeen children, Benjamin Franklin had to cut short on his schooling when he was just ten years old, and by dint of sheer hard work rose up to become a printer, from which he published The Pennsylvania Gazette.

Well, The Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the most prominent newspapers to have come from America. 

It ruled the minds and hearts of the Americans for more than seven decades until the Revolution happened. 

Benji also did his might to enliven this famed periodical with his numerous essays, most of which he wrote under aliases, with the avowed aim of transforming society and agitating for a variety of local reforms! 

His literary fame today rests much-o-much on his Poor Richards, his Richard Saunders, and his Father Abraham – which were his ingenious, witty pseudonyms for himself!

Poor Richard’s Almanac was a yearly almanac that he published all by himself. The Almanac had ample information on the calendar, witty sayings, wordplays, weather reports, poems, along with astronomical and astrological information too!

Interestingly, Franklin had admitted to having created the Poor Richard persona based on Jonathan Swift’s pseudonymous character, ‘Isaac Bickerstaff’.

Moreover, Franklin was able to cleverly pass off his Poor Richards persona as the name of his printer!

This Poor Richards Almanac has yet another glorious name to fame too!

It was in this Almanac that Franklin introduced one of his most amazing personas ever and it was his ‘Father Abraham’ persona!

Incidentally, these high-renowned ‘Father Abraham persona’ speeches, later became the delightful essay, titled, The Way to Wealth!

Today, as we all know, the impact of The Way to Wealth is beyond compare! In fact, it was this essay, that’s been touted as the work that introduced American capitalism to the entire world!

[On an aside, well, the one-hundred-dollar bill in the US is called Benjamin, for the simple reason that, his face adorns the Bill!]

Comes as it does, with an impactful collection of adages, wise thoughts and advice, gleaned from the Father Abraham series of speeches, The Way to Wealth is a treat to the diligent mind!

Akin to the Academy founded by Plato in Athens, Franklin founded an Academy, which later took shape as the University of Pennsylvania! 

Wait! That’s not all! He also founded the American Philosophical Society to help the scientific-minded to communicate their inventions and discoveries amongst themselves.

And as the saying goes, when the boss wasn’t into writing, he was busy inventing something. Most of his high-renowned inventions include the bifocal lenses, the lightning rod, etc are meet for a different feature!

This apart, Franklin also pioneered the public library system in America along with giving shape to the idea of the fire department and the hospital. Added, he also pioneered the process of harnessing the immense ‘power’ of electricity for public consumption.

Coming back to his autobiography, which is a class of its own –

The very opening paragraph to the autobiography reminds one of Charles Lamb and the myriad cryptic clues to names he splashes across through his entire ‘Elia’ persona’d essays!

The rhythmic, alliterative and invigorating style to his autobiographical masterpiece in prose, lends a cadenced feel to the reading that comes albeit almost spontaneously to any reader who’s reading him even for the very first time!

I would so love to take you on a whirlwind tour into this wonderful autobiographical read! With some astounding snippets that speak volumes to the mettle and the drive, the vibrancy and the joi de vivre that has so possessed his entire being.

Now over to some interesting snippets from his Autobiography! [The captions to each paragraph alone, are this blogger’s! The rest, in italics, are Benji's!]

Benjamin Franklin speaks –

My fondness for Reading!

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the Pilgrim’s Progress, my first collection was of John Bunyan’s works in separate little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton’s Historical Collections; they were small chapmen’s books, and cheap, 40 or 50 in all.

My father’s library and its influence on the principal future events of my life!

My father’s little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper books had not fallen in my way since it was now resolved I should not be a clergyman. Plutarch’s Lives there was in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a book of De Foe’s, called an Essay on Projects, and another of Dr. Mather’s, called Essays to do Good, which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life.  

Matthew Adams invites Me to His Library!

Often I sat up in my room reading. And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection of books, and who frequented our printing-house, took notice of me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent me such books as I chose to read. 

I now took a fancy to poetry, and made some little pieces; my brother, thinking it might turn to account, encouraged me, and put me on composing occasional ballads. 

One was called The Lighthouse Tragedy, and contained an account of the drowning of Captain Worthilake, with his two daughters: the other was a sailor’s song, on the taking of Teach (or Blackbeard) the pirate. 

They were wretched stuff, in the Grub-street-ballad style; and when they were printed he sent me about the town to sell them. 

The first sold wonderfully, the event being recent, having made a great noise.

My Acquaintance with Yet Another ‘Book’ish Lad in Town!

There was another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. 

We sometimes disputed, and very fond we were of argument, and very desirous of confuting one another, which disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in company by the contradiction that is necessary to bring it into practice; and thence, besides souring and spoiling the conversation, is productive of disgusts and, perhaps enmities where you may have occasion for friendship.

Persons of Good Sense Rarely fall into disputes On Religion!

I had caught it by reading my father’s books of dispute about religion. 

Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it, except lawyers, university men, and men of all sorts that have been bred at Edinborough.

On Educating the Female Sex in Learning!

A question was once, somehow or other, started between Collins and me, of the propriety of educating the female sex in learning, and their abilities for study. 

He was of opinion that it was improper, and that they were naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary side, perhaps a little for dispute’s sake. 

He was naturally more eloquent, had a ready plenty of words; and sometimes, as I thought, bore me down more by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons. 

As we parted without settling the point, and were not to see one another again for some time, I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied fair and sent to him. He answered, and I replied. 

Three or four letters of a side had passed, when my father happened to find my papers and read them.

I Fell Far Short in ‘Elegance of expression’!

Without entering into the discussion, he took occasion to talk to me about the manner of my writing; observed that, though I had the advantage of my antagonist in correct spelling and pointing (which I ow’d to the printing-house), I fell far short in elegance of expression, in method and in perspicuity, of which he convinced me by several instances. I saw the justice of his remark, and thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing, and determined to endeavor at improvement.

I Thought the Writing Style in Spectator Was Excellent!

About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. 

I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. 

With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try’d to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. 

Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them.

I Lacked A Stock Of Words, Or A Readiness In Recollecting And Using Them!

But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. 

Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. 

I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and complete the paper. 

This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. 

By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious.

My Reading Exercises Were for the Night!

My time for these exercises and for reading was at night, after work or before it began in the morning, or on Sundays, when I contrived to be in the printing-house alone, evading as much as I could the common attendance on public worship which my father used to exact on me when I was under his care, and which indeed I still thought a duty, though I could not, as it seemed to me, afford time to practise it.  

I Was Chid for My Singularity of Not Eating Meat!

When about 16 years of age I happened to meet with a book, written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it. 

My brother, being yet unmarried, did not keep house, but boarded himself and his apprentices in another family. My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chid for my singularity. 

I made myself acquainted with Tryon’s manner of preparing some of his dishes, such as boiling potatoes or rice, making hasty pudding, and a few others, and then proposed to my brother, that if he would give me, weekly, half the money he paid for my board, I would board myself. 

He instantly agreed to it, and I presently found that I could save half what he paid me. This was an additional fund for buying books. 

But I had another advantage in it. My brother and the rest going from the printing-house to their meals, I remained there alone, and, despatching presently my light repast, which often was no more than a bisket or a slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the pastry-cook’s, and a glass of water, had the rest of the time till their return for study, in which I made the greater progress, from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking.

And now it was that, being on some occasion made asham’d of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker’s book of Arithmetick, and went through the whole by myself with great ease. I also read Seller’s and Shermy’s books of Navigation, and became acquainted with the little geometry they contain; but never proceeded far in that science. And I read about this time Locke On Human Understanding, and the Art of Thinking, by Messrs. du Port Royal.

I Was Intent on Improving My Language!

While I was intent on improving my language, I met with an English grammar (I think it was Greenwood’s), at the end of which there were two little sketches of the arts of rhetoric and logic, the latter finishing with a specimen of a dispute in the Socratic method; and soon after I procur’d Xenophon’s Memorable Things of Socrates, wherein there are many instances of the same method. 

I was charm’d with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter.

And being then, from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real doubter in many points of our religious doctrine, I found this method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, practis’d it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved.

I continu’d this method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or I should think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken.

This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engag’d in promoting; and, as the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving information or pleasure.

From his arrival in Philadephia, Pennyslvania, as a penniless, jobless young lad, ambling down the beautiful streetsides with a lone bread roll in hand, looking for opportunities galore, to becoming one of the most influential and most amazing men that America has ever produced, Benji has sure come a long and remarkable way!

For those of y'all avid readers so tuned to reading autobiographies, this read is a real steal! It's there on the stacks of all leading libraries as well! 

So... why wait? here is water! Bonne lecture to ya! 

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