The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (ePub)

Benjamin Franklin was a renowned polymath and a leading author, inventor, printer, scientist, activist, freemason, postmaster, statesman, diplomat, political theorist, and politician. He was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history for his discoveries regarding electricity. A signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Franklin is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

No man has shed such good influence on America; none added so much new truth to popular knowledge; none has so skillfully organized its ideas into institutions. No man has so strong a hold on the individual business of practical men in their daily life. American society valued the things Franklin could do well: work hard, write effectively, plan improvements, conciliate differences, and conduct public affairs. His Autobiography records these achievements and values and habits which made them possible. And yet the surprising and delightful thing about this book (the Autobiography) is that, taken all in all, it is a sober man's unaffected assessment of himself and the circumstances of his career.

An imperfect acquaintance with the range, the vitality, the vigor of this admirable craftsman who chose a style "smooth, clear, and short," and made it serve every purpose of his versatile and beneficent mind. Woodrow Wilson