Benjamin Franklin

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.3
Word count
1.6M words
Chapters
159

Tags

English Originals General Biography Legendary LivesCivic AwarenessInspirationComplex HumanitySuccess MindsetFamous FiguresSelf-Reflection

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin FranklinAuthor: Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 6, 2011

Editor's review

This is an English-language collection of Benjamin Franklin's writings, released free by Project Gutenberg and classified as public-domain literature under American and Canadian literature. Its value lies first in the accessibility and primacy of the documents: readers can engage directly with Franklin's own words rather than secondhand biographical accounts. For readers who want to understand how this important figure of the American founding era expressed himself and discussed public affairs, this is a relatively reliable primary source. The electronic edition facilitates searching, excerpting, and comparative reading, and works well as an entry point for close reading of English primary texts, as well as a supplementary text for discussions of early American thought, print culture, and public writing. Note that this is a public-domain English ebook without a modern editor's introduction or detailed annotations, so readers need some English reading ability and background knowledge. It suits readers with a clear reading purpose rather than general leisure readers seeking light stories or a systematic biography.

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Reading tips

  1. First read through the table of contents and structure, then closely read the parts relevant to your research questions.
  2. Prepare background material and, as you read, note Franklin's core views and argumentative methods.
  3. Use the ebook's search function to organize recurring keywords and form your own thematic threads.
  4. For course use, pair it with a reliable Chinese introductory guide to understand the historical context.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? According to the information, this is a public-domain English ebook released by Project Gutenberg, in English and classified under American and Canadian literature. Some English ability is required before reading; the book contains no Chinese translation.
Is this book Franklin's complete autobiography? The information only identifies it as an English-language collection of Benjamin Franklin's writings; the specific contents are not stated. Readers should check the ebook's table of contents to confirm what is included, and should not assume it is equivalent to a particular complete autobiography.
What background knowledge is needed to read this book? Familiarity with the basic historical outline of the American founding era helps, since the texts deal with public issues and writing conventions of the time. Without that background, read a concise historical introduction first, then return to the original text for smoother comprehension.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 Author

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was a renowned American statesman, scientist, inventor, writer, and publisher, and one of the key figures of the early United States. Born in Boston, he apprenticed as a printer and later ran a printing and publishing business in Philadelphia, gaining wide repute. He conducted important experiments in electricity, argued for the conservation of charge, and invented the lightning rod. As a statesman, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and served as minister to France. The library holds fifteen of his works, the best known being his Autobiography, which recounts his self-education and moral self-improvement in plain, sincere, and instructive prose, exerting a lasting influence on American literature and inspirational writing.