Note: When first issued, the Library of America edition of Franklin's WritingsWritings was collected in one large volume; later, it was published as two separate volumes.
Statesman, scientist, philosopher, printer, and civic leader, Benjamin Franklin was also the most powerful writer of his time. From his first appearance in print, in the guise of the eccentric, opinionated, voluble “Silence Dogood” (1722), to his last published article, a searing satire against slavery (1790), he covered every aspect of “the question of America” with radiant clarity, wit, and penetration.
This Library of America collection begins with items written by Franklin during his early years in Boston and London (1722–1726), including the complete “Silence Dogood” essay series. The volume also includes the famous “Busy-Body” essays (1728–1729); many of the news articles and essays he penned after he purchased the failing Pennsylvania GazettePennsylvania Gazette (which eventually became the most widely read newspaper in the colonies); and various political satires, pamphlets, and personal correspondence written while he lived in Philadelphia from 1726 to 1757. The book concludes with material he published while a diplomat in London from 1757 to 1775 (including letters to the press, satires, and pamphlets).
Controversial in his own time, and the subject of vigorous debate ever since—to Matthew Arnold he exemplified “victorious good sense,” while to D. H. Lawrence he was “the first dummy American”—Franklin emerges in this collection as a figure of extraordinary complexity for readers to discover, consider, and appreciate anew.
A companion volume includes Poor Richard’s AlmanackPoor Richard’s Almanack, Franklin’s classic Autobiography, and his later writings.
Benjamin Franklin was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.
According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."
In 1856, Franklin began to publish the ultra-conservative American Christian Review, which he published until his death in 1878. Its influence, initially considerable, was said to have waned following the American Civil War. Franklin undertook a rigorous program of publication correspondence, and traveling lectures which took him to "many" U. S. states and Canada.
Franklin's last move was to Anderson, Indiana, where he lived from 1864 until his death.
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