BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)

The memoirs of Benjamin Franklin are among the most widely read of all American autobiographies. The memoir was originally begun in 1771 as a letter to Franklin's illegitimate son, William, the last royal governor of New Jersey. The remainder was composed much later in Franklin's life and published after his death. Despite the long and complicated history of the autobiography's composition and publication, it remains a fine example of Franklin's expository writing and one of the most influential works in American literature.

When Franklin died on April 17, 1790, his grandson, William Temple Franklin, became his literary executor. Temple Franklin had ambitious plans for the publication of his grandfather's manuscripts, but his "official" version did not appear until 1818. Early in 1791, however, a French translation of the first part of Franklin's memoirs appeared in Paris, representing the first printed edition of Franklin's autobiography. How the French publisher, Buisson, obtained a copy of the manuscript is still a matter of conjecture. Although Temple Franklin was not pleased, two translations from the French were printed in London in 1793.

It was not until 1868 that John Bigelow, former American Minister to France, published an edition which included all four of the parts, rigorously based on the original Franklin manuscripts which Bigelow had purchased.

The copies exhibited here are the first French edition of 1791 and the first English edition of 1793. The English edition is here bound with a biography of Rev. Richard Price, a very close friend of Franklin's.