Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Page 5

York City.
When Mr. Bigelow came to examine his purchase, he was astonished to
find that what people had been reading for years as the authentic Life of
Benjamin Franklin by Himself, was only a garbled and incomplete
version of the real Autobiography. Temple Franklin had taken
unwarranted liberties with the original. Mr. Bigelow says he found
more than twelve hundred changes in the text. In 1868, therefore, Mr.

Bigelow published the standard edition of Franklin's Autobiography. It
corrected errors in the previous editions and was the first English
edition to contain the short fourth part, comprising the last few pages of
the manuscript, written during the last year of Franklin's life. Mr.
Bigelow republished the Autobiography, with additional interesting
matter, in three volumes in 1875, in 1905, and in 1910. The text in this
volume is that of Mr. Bigelow's editions.[2]
[2] For the division into chapters and the chapter titles, however, the
present editor is responsible.
The Autobiography has been reprinted in the United States many scores
of times and translated into all the languages of Europe. It has never
lost its popularity and is still in constant demand at circulating libraries.
The reason for this popularity is not far to seek. For in this work
Franklin told in a remarkable manner the story of a remarkable life. He
displayed hard common sense and a practical knowledge of the art of
living. He selected and arranged his material, perhaps unconsciously,
with the unerring instinct of the journalist for the best effects. His
success is not a little due to his plain, clear, vigorous English. He used
short sentences and words, homely expressions, apt illustrations, and
pointed allusions. Franklin had a most interesting, varied, and unusual
life. He was one of the greatest conversationalists of his time.
His book is the record of that unusual life told in Franklin's own
unexcelled conversational style. It is said that the best parts of
Boswell's famous biography of Samuel Johnson are those parts where
Boswell permits Johnson to tell his own story. In the Autobiography a
no less remarkable man and talker than Samuel Johnson is telling his
own story throughout.
F. W. P.
The Gilman Country School, Baltimore, September, 1916.
[Illustration: Pages 1 and 4 of The Pennsylvania Gazette, the first
number after Franklin took control. Reduced nearly one-half.
Reproduced from a copy at the New York Public Library.]

[Transcriber's note: Transcription of these pages are given at the end of
the text.]

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

I
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YOUTH IN BOSTON
Twyford,[3] at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771.
Dear son: I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of
my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the
remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the
journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally
agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which
you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's
uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to
write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements.
Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born
and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the
world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of
felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of
God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may
find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to
be imitated.
[3] A small village not far from Winchester in Hampshire, southern
England. Here was the country seat of the Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr.
Jonathan Shipley, the "good Bishop," as Dr. Franklin used to style him.
Their relations were intimate and confidential. In his pulpit, and in the
House of Lords, as well as in society, the bishop always opposed the
harsh measures of the Crown toward the Colonies.--Bigelow.
That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say,

that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a
repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the
advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of
the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister
accidents and events of it for others more favourable. But though this
were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is
not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again
seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as
durable as possible by putting it down in writing.
Hereby,