Franklin on Franklin

by Paul M. Zall (Editor)

Overview

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography ends in 1758, some thirty years before he died. Those three decades included some of the statesman's greatest triumphs, yet instead of including them in his memoir, Franklin spent the years continually revising his original text. Paul Zall has created a new autobiographical account of Franklin's entire life. By returning to a newly recovered early draft of the Autobiography, he strips away later layers of moralizing to reveal the story as Franklin first wrote it: how a poor boy from Boston used words and hard work to become America's first world-class citizen. To cover Franklin's career as a diplomat and as the only signatory of all three key documents of the American Revolution, Zall interweaves autobiographical comments from Franklin's personal letters and private journals. Franklin emerges as different from the common perception of him as a crafty "Man of Reason." His raw words reveal the bitter infighting among both British and American politicians and his personal struggle with his son's choice of the opposite side in the fight for the future of two countries. Without the veneer of second thoughts, his lifelong struggle to control his temper carries greater poignancy, as do his later years spent nursing his wounded pride. Susceptible to both fallibility and frustration, the honest Franklin depicted in his own words nevertheless remains an uncommon common man, perhaps even more so than previously thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813189857
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	12/14/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	916 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul M. Zall (1922-2010), Emeritus Professor of English at California State University at Los Angeles, was a research scholar at the Huntington Library. He is the author of many books including Lincoln on Lincoln, Jefferson on Jefferson, and Franklin on Franklin.

Editorial Reviews

Like the author's previous book, Lincoln on Lincoln (Univ. Pr. of Kentucky, 2001), this recent volume contains various writings that delineate the former president's life and ideas. The first 23 chapters comprise the first draft of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, which he revised over an 18-year period, but here Zall (research scholar, Huntington Library) strips away Franklin's later misgivings, cautious revisions, and other changes to reveal the document as it was originally composed. Zall covers the remaining 43 years of his subject's life in the last six chapters by reprinting letters and other documents. The many contradictions of Franklin's character are on prominent display throughout the volume. All the materials contained here are already available in heavily annotated scholarly editions, including some by Zall himself (e.g., Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Criticism, 1986, coedited with J.A. Leo Lemay). The present volume is aimed at general readers and does an excellent job of allowing Franklin's own words to reveal the major events and emotions in his life. Recommended for public libraries. T.J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Few scholars equal Zall in knowledge and understanding of Franklin's works.an excellent book.

Robert Middlekauff

Since Franklin completed [his autobiography] in his middle 40s, with over four more decades of a busy and important life ahead of him, the work was incomplete. No longer. Zall... begins where Franklin left off, using only authentic Franklin notes.

USA Today Magazine

Shows us a rawer, franker, more human and vulnerable Franklin.

Louisville Courier-Journal

American history enthusiasts will truly enjoy the intimate portrait of an American icon with Paul M. Zall's excellent biography.

WTBF Radio

Franklin's is a good life story and Zall puts it together well.

Barbara Oberg

This edition and the comparison of texts make one of America's most fascinating men yet more fascinating.

Choice

A strikingly revealing, unvarnished portrait of one of our most beloved and seemingly benign Founding Fathers.

Booklist

Leave it to Paul M. Zall, preeminent research scholar, intellectual, and historian, to present Benjamin Franklin in an innovative style that goes beyond a simple biography.... Gives us new insight into the internal struggles of a truly great American.

White House Studies

A refreshing take on one of the most studied classics in American literature, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Zall provides a new approach to understanding the Founding Father's famous memoir... by filling in the many lacunae in the text and providing what Franklin never got to: the end of the story.

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Franklin's is a good life story and Zall puts it together well." — Barbara Oberg

"A strikingly revealing, unvarnished portrait of one of our most beloved and seemingly benign Founding Fathers." — Booklist

"This edition and the comparison of texts make one of America's most fascinating men yet more fascinating." — Choice

"Does an excellent job of allowing Franklin's own words to reveal the major events and emotions in his life." — Library Journal

"Shows us a rawer, franker, more human and vulnerable Franklin." — Louisville Courier-Journal

"A refreshing take on one of the most studied classics in American literature, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Zall provides a new approach to understanding the Founding Father's famous memoir... by filling in the many lacunae in the text and providing what Franklin never got to: the end of the story." — Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Few scholars equal Zall in knowledge and understanding of Franklin's works….an excellent book." — Robert Middlekauff

"Since Franklin completed [his autobiography] in his middle 40s, with over four more decades of a busy and important life ahead of him, the work was incomplete. No longer. Zall... begins where Franklin left off, using only authentic Franklin notes." — USA Today Magazine

"Leave it to Paul M. Zall, preeminent research scholar, intellectual, and historian, to present Benjamin Franklin in an innovative style that goes beyond a simple biography.... Gives us new insight into the internal struggles of a truly great American." — White House Studies

"American history enthusiasts will truly enjoy the intimate portrait of an American icon with Paul M. Zall's excellent biography." — WTBF Radio

From the Publisher