The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has prob ably been more extensively read than any other American historical work, and no other book of its kind has had such ups and downs of fortune. Franklin lived for many years in England, where he was agent for Pennsylvania and other American colonies. He was separated from his family, and it was during one of his long absences, in 1771, that he determined to write an account of his life, which had been an eventful one, for his son William Franklin, then about forty years old. William Franldin had been with his father in England, as the first paragraph of the Autobiography shows, and had been admitted to the bar there, but finding favor at court had been appointed Governor of New Jersey, and was in that position when Franklin was writing. He held to the royal cause and was thereby estranged from his father, though before Benjamin Franklin’s death they were partially reconciled.