Book Review – The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

This is a different kind of autobiography than I’ve read before. Starting out with your normal starting point of birth and early childhood, Franklin is clearly remembering a lot of important aspects of his life that were formational to his life, however, there’s too much detail on low-key points and almost nothing on what you’d want to hear from Franklin about. Things like the Revolution or his time after as an ambassador are absent. He has a few tales of his inventions and start-ups that are great but it’s almost an afterthought to the points he’s making. In fact there are parts where the publisher or Franklin talk about a section just ending or Franklin’s family encouraging to write more. A bit bizarre.

A good majority of the book covers Franklin’s coming up and starting his printing business. Either the man took scrupulous notes or has a mind for the details but it’s almost impossible for someone to have that minutia of a recall for jobs he took when he was a teenager. There are some great moments in there like him starting a fire department, how he got stinkin’ rich off his Poor Richard’s Almanac, and a brief mention of his kite and electricity experiment. He talks about him being a deist but falling in love with George Whitfield for his rhetoric in his preaching. You also get some honest elements of Franklin being a bit of a sleaze that he mentions just as matter-of-fact like failing to marry a woman and keep her waiting or pursuing another woman that is someone else’s. He devotes little time to talking about his wife, children, or family (after leaving them for his own business adventures when he was young).

There are a lot of little interesting life lessons and tidbits from here but this isn’t really going to be the place you want to go to read about the full aspect of the man – you’ll want to find someone who is a good author who will use this book in conjunction with others. An okay book as long as you know what to expect going into it.