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Title: Benjamin Franklin: Writings by Benjamin Franklin, J.A. Leo Lemay ISBN: 0-940450-29-1 Publisher: Library of America Pub. Date: September, 1987 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Too Long Overlooked
Comment: This collection of Franklin's writing display his quick mind, mathematical gifts, great sense of humor, detachment in crisis, and the razor-sharp diplomatic mind which did more than supposed for the American cause (more so than than Adams and others thought). An American genius and a true seer of note. A book to be enjoyed again and again.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Modern Compilation of Franklin's Writings
Comment: The Library of America should be commended for preserving the works of Benjamin Franklin. This is the finest compilation of Franklin's writings still in print.
The book is organized and presented in chronological order. The first section contains Franklin's writings between 1722-1726. This section contains the famous "Silence Dogood" works. The second section consists of writings between 1726-1757. This section contains the "Busy Body" pieces and the writings from the Philadelphia Gazette, amongst other works. The third section consists of writings which date between 1757-1775. The fourth section consists of writings between 1776-1785. The fifth section consists of writings between 1785-1790. And the final two sections are "Poor Richard's Almanack" and "The Autobiography."
Moreover, the sections contain personal letters between Franklin and other notable men such as David Hume, Lord Kames, John Pringle, Benjamin Rush, etc. Also, religious writings, philosophy, political writings and the like are present in this single volume. In fact, there is about 1500 pages of just Franklin's writings. Additionally, in the back of the book, there is a very detailed chronology of Franklin's life describing notable things which occurred between his birth and death.
This is a great text for those who are wanting a very detailed volume of Franklin's writings. However, it is also a great compilation for those who simply want to sit down and get a sample of the works of Franklin to find out what type of man he was, what he believed, what he taught, his sense of humor and the like.
This book has been one of the best investments that I have made in my collection of American Revolutionary (Founders) history. I highly recommend this work.
Rating: 5
Summary: The best, most comprehensive introduction to Franklin
Comment: Many of Benjamin Franklin's biographers follow up their treatments of his life and work with an edited collection of his writings, as if to concede that he is his own best presenter. Any reader interested in Franklin should therefore set the biographies aside for a time and turn first to this superb Library of America compilation of Franklin's writings. Spanning his life from his early humorous writings (penned at the age of 16) to letters he wrote in the last year of his life (at 84), it is the single best, because most comprehensive, introduction to Franklin.
Carl Van Doren ended his classic biography of Franklin by describing him as "a harmonious human multitude." The phrase has become shorthand for those who try to encompass Franklin's activities as printer, journalist, polemicist, political thinker, writer, economist, demographer, scientist (or "natural philosopher" in the 18th-century phrase), lobbyist, diplomat, and sage. More recent Fra! nklin scholars, such as Esmond Wright and Robert Middlekauff, concede his complexity, but doubt the harmony holding together his various interests, activities, priorities, friendships, and hostilities; they also note that Franklin's genial exterior cloaked a massive and implacable egotism and an unsuspected capacity for strong and often bitter emotion.
All these facets of Franklin emerge from this superbly-edited volume. J. A. Leo Lemay, one of the nation's leading scholars of Franklin's life and work, has produced a volume fully worthy of Franklin and the Library of America series; it will be indispensable to all future students of Benjamin Franklin, of colonial and Revolutionary America, and of the foundations of American literature, science, politics, and government. -- Richard B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School; Daniel M. Lyons Visiting Professor in American History, Brooklyn College/CUNY (1997-1998); Book Review Editor for Constitutional Books,! H-LAW; and Senior Research Fellow, Council on Citizenship ! Education, Russell Sage College.
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