Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Page 4

from 1745 onward. This century saw the beginnings of the
modern novel, in Fielding's Tom Jones, Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe,
Sterne's Tristram Shandy, and Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. Gibbon
wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Hume his History of
England, and Adam Smith the Wealth of Nations.
In the simplicity and vigor of his style Franklin more nearly resembles
the earlier group of writers. In his first essays he was not an inferior
imitator of Addison. In his numerous parables, moral allegories, and
apologues he showed Bunyan's influence. But Franklin was essentially
a journalist. In his swift, terse style, he is most like Defoe, who was the
first great English journalist and master of the newspaper narrative. The
style of both writers is marked by homely, vigorous expression, satire,

burlesque, repartee. Here the comparison must end. Defoe and his
contemporaries were authors. Their vocation was writing and their
success rests on the imaginative or creative power they displayed. To
authorship Franklin laid no claim. He wrote no work of the imagination.
He developed only incidentally a style in many respects as remarkable
as that of his English contemporaries. He wrote the best autobiography
in existence, one of the most widely known collections of maxims, and
an unsurpassed series of political and social satires, because he was a
man of unusual scope of power and usefulness, who knew how to tell
his fellow-men the secrets of that power and that usefulness.
The Story of the Autobiography
The account of how Franklin's Autobiography came to be written and
of the adventures of the original manuscript forms in itself an
interesting story. The Autobiography is Franklin's longest work, and yet
it is only a fragment. The first part, written as a letter to his son,
William Franklin, was not intended for publication; and the
composition is more informal and the narrative more personal than in
the second part, from 1730 on, which was written with a view to
publication. The entire manuscript shows little evidence of revision. In
fact, the expression is so homely and natural that his grandson, William
Temple Franklin, in editing the work changed some of the phrases
because he thought them inelegant and vulgar.
Franklin began the story of his life while on a visit to his friend, Bishop
Shipley, at Twyford, in Hampshire, southern England, in 1771. He took
the manuscript, completed to 1731, with him when he returned to
Philadelphia in 1775. It was left there with his other papers when he
went to France in the following year, and disappeared during the
confusion incident to the Revolution. Twenty-three pages of closely
written manuscript fell into the hands of Abel James, an old friend, who
sent a copy to Franklin at Passy, near Paris, urging him to complete the
story. Franklin took up the work at Passy in 1784 and carried the
narrative forward a few months. He changed the plan to meet his new
purpose of writing to benefit the young reader. His work was soon
interrupted and was not resumed until 1788, when he was at home in

Philadelphia. He was now old, infirm, and suffering, and was still
engaged in public service. Under these discouraging conditions the
work progressed slowly. It finally stopped when the narrative reached
the year 1757. Copies of the manuscript were sent to friends of
Franklin in England and France, among others to Monsieur Le Veillard
at Paris.
The first edition of the Autobiography was published in French at Paris
in 1791. It was clumsily and carelessly translated, and was imperfect
and unfinished. Where the translator got the manuscript is not known.
Le Veillard disclaimed any knowledge of the publication. From this
faulty French edition many others were printed, some in Germany, two
in England, and another in France, so great was the demand for the
work.
In the meantime the original manuscript of the Autobiography had
started on a varied and adventurous career. It was left by Franklin with
his other works to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, whom
Franklin designated as his literary executor. When Temple Franklin
came to publish his grandfather's works in 1817, he sent the original
manuscript of the Autobiography to the daughter of Le Veillard in
exchange for her father's copy, probably thinking the clearer transcript
would make better printer's copy. The original manuscript thus found
its way to the Le Veillard family and connections, where it remained
until sold in 1867 to Mr. John Bigelow, United States Minister to
France. By him it was later sold to Mr. E. Dwight Church of New York,
and passed with the rest of Mr. Church's library into the possession of
Mr. Henry E. Huntington. The original manuscript of Franklin's
Autobiography now rests in the vault in Mr. Huntington's residence at
Fifth Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street, New