Franklin of Philadelphia

by Esmond Wright

The most original and most delightful of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin was publisher and printer, essayist and author, businessman and “general,” scientist and philologist, politician and diplomat, moralist and sage―and a thoroughly rational patriot who was a major force in winning his country’s independence and securing its life in the Constitution. Born poor in Cotton Mather’s Boston, he was soon at ease in Quaker Philadelphia, and later in royal London, and in elegant Paris. Born with no advantages, he died wealthy and esteemed. He was the quintessential American, almost totally free of the limits of his environment, ready to accept any challenge, to speculate, experiment, and question.

Esmond Wright, the distinguished English scholar of America, sees Franklin as an Old England Man and a reluctant revolutionary; civilized, urbane, devious, and on occasion just a little unscrupulous. For, despite his charm and genius, Franklin was not admired by everybody. His contemporary John Adams thought little of his political abilities, and the Federalist pamphleteer William Cobbett called him a “crafty and lecherous old hypocrite.” In the next century, Mark Twain, Hawthorne, and Melville did not value him; still later, D. H. Lawrence despised the middle-class morality he promoted. Many today deplore his lack of interest in the arts or metaphysics, his lack of passionate commitment, his opportunism, his occasional coarseness. Yet his success in business, his many-faceted public career, his ingenious inventions and world-renowned scientific genius, his splendid prose style, his worldly wisdom, and the attractive personality that shines through his remarks and writings, made Benjamin Franklin the “new man” of the eighteenth-century dream and also vastly appealing to the modern temper. Wright’s new biography presents a fully rounded portrait of this remarkable man for all ages.

This first comprehensive biography of Franklin in fifty years has taken advantage of Yale’s massive edition-in-progress of Franklin’s papers and of the many specialized studies inspired by the correspondence. Franklin of Philadelphia , designed for the general reader, is also a work for scholars, for the author appends a thorough analysis of other interpretations of Franklin’s career and personality.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

442 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Esmond Wright was an English historian of the United States, Director of the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London from 1971 to 1983, a television personality, author, and a Conservative politician.

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good complement to Franklin's autobiography. Lots of details about his life in Boston, Philly, and Europe. Because it is so well researched, it gives the reader an education of what life was like, beyond just a biography of Franklin. The cultures, travel, disease, food, etc.

[Glenn Robinson]

Very well done bio of One of the most incredible citizens of the US-Ben Franklin. This covers his life from Boston and his time as an indentured servant to his entry into Philadelphia and the development of his business life, scientific life and more. Going into the development of the postal system allowed him to travel frequently from Williamsburg to Maine.

Franklin was a loyalist to the King. He believed in the King, but not Parliament. Once July 4th came, he turned away from the king and did all he could to secure treaties, moneys and security for our new government. His son stayed loyal to the king, was arrested and Franklin turned his back on his son, as well.

The book covers his life in London, Paris and Philadelphia. Well done and very enjoyable.