Author : Benjamin Franklin
Release : 2015-06-02
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 337/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Autobiography Poor Richard, Letters by : Benjamin Franklin

Download or read book Autobiography Poor Richard, Letters written by Benjamin Franklin. This book was released on 2015-06-02. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Autobiography Poor Richard, Letters A remarkable fact about the Autobiography of Franklin is that it first appeared in a foreign language. While he left his manuscripts by will to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, he had sent a copy of this narrative of his life to an intimate friend, M.Veillard, Mayor of Passy, near Paris. Dr. Franklin died in 1790, at the age of eightyfour, and the next year appeared in Paris a French translation of his Autobiography. From this first translation it was at once retranslated into English, and rival editions were published in London in 1793. This imperfect version, made from a French translation, and not at all the original Autobiography, was the only text of this remarkable book ever printed in English up to the year 1817, when the grandson, after strange and unaccounted-for delays, at last published in London, in six volumes, the Works of Benjamin Franklin, and among them the Autobiography from the Doctor's manuscript. The Hon. John Bigelow, long a diplomatic representative of the United States in Europe, found and purchased in 1867, from the family who had inherited it, the precious original manuscript of Franklin's Autobiography, in his own handwriting. Mr. Bigelow edited it, and printed it in Philadelphia in 1868, and it has since gone through several editions. This authentic text is followed in the present publication of the work. The "Poor Richard's Maxims," here printed, include all that is most characteristic and interesting in the long series of "Poor Richard's Almanack," which Franklin originated and edited, from 1733 to 1758 inclusive. The originals of these curious almanacs have now become so rare, that a visit to three cities is necessary to secure a sight of all the issues. A partial set in the Library of Congress, embracing forty-one years of the Almanack, contains the very scarce issue for 1758, in which Franklin printed a summary of the "Poor Richard" sayings, scattered through twenty-five years of his Almanack. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.