the autobiography of benjamin franklin second edition

He decides to return to Philadelphia to be a clerk at his friend Denham’s store. In London, where he resides for eighteen months, Franklin works hard and enjoys the amusements of the town, although he and Ralph also dissolve their friendship. Keith proves faithless in this regard, but Franklin secures a job at Watts, a reputable printinghouse. One man, James Ralph, decides to accompany Franklin to London, where Franklin will continue to study the printing trade and meet influential men to whom Keith had promised to introduce him via letters.

Franklin worries about paying back the money of his father’s friend Vernon, who had given it to Franklin for safekeeping: unbeknownst to Vernon, Franklin had loaned to Collins.įranklin courts a young woman named Miss Read and enjoys conversing about poetry and philosophy with other young men in the town. In the meantime, he has a falling out with Collins, who is often drunk. Franklin agrees and hopes this will happen in the future. However, Josiah thinks Franklin is too young and tells him he must spend time working hard at the trade before he will assist. The Governor of the province, Sir William Keith, is impressed by Franklin and offers to help convince Franklin’s father that he ought to get his own shop. There Franklin gets work with a printer named Keimer, with whom he has a pleasant enough relationship. James and Franklin do not get along so, Franklin and his friend John Collins run away to Philadelphia. He enjoys this trade and spends his leisure time perfecting his own writing. He strongly dislikes his father’s trade, tallow chandlery and soap boiling, and tries out a few others before being apprenticed to his brother James, a printer. Franklin is quickly identified as intelligent but does not do well in school: he is told he must take up a trade.

Josiah and his second wife, Abiah, settle in Boston with Franklin and his siblings. He traces it back three hundred years to Ecton in Northamptonshire, England, and then brings it to his father Josiah’s arrival in New England to escape religious persecution.

Franklin starts writing his autobiography in 1771, addressing it to his “Dear Son” and beginning with his family history.

The autobiography of benjamin franklin second edition