The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Begun in 1771 as a letter to his son and continued at intervals until 1790, Benjamin Franklin’s account of his own life is the founding American autobiography. It follows the printer’s apprentice who ran away to Philadelphia, the self-improver with his list of thirteen virtues and his weekly chart, the founder of libraries, fire companies and a university — and stops before the Revolution that made him famous.

He wrote it in four sittings, in four places and four moods: Twyford in 1771, Passy in 1784, Philadelphia in 1788 and again in 1789–90. The joins show, and they are part of the interest; so are the two letters from Abel James and Benjamin Vaughan that persuaded him to continue, printed here where he placed them.

This edition follows the text of the Harvard Classics (1909), with the chronology of his life appended.