Fridays with Franklin
Friday, October 3, 2008 at 03:14PM 
"Life, like a dramatic piece, should not only be conducted with regularity, but methinks it should finish handsomely. Being now in the last act, I begin to cast about for something fit to end with. Or if mine be more properly compar'd to an epigram, as some of it's few lines are but barely tolerable, I am very desirous of concluding with a bright point."
--Benjamin Franklin, The Compleated Autobiography, July 2, 1756
It may seem strange to start a series about Benjamin Franklin with a quote from him concerning the end of his life, but I think it will help us to realize from the start that Benjamin Franklin was building a legacy as he was building his life--and he knew it.
Since we're starting at the end, I thought that this would be a good place to include a bibliography of my sources:
The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, compiled and edited by Mark Skousen, Ph. D.
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Franklin: The Essential Founding Father, by James Srodes
The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius by Joyce E. Chaplin
The Benjamin Franklin Book of Easy and Incredible Experiments: A Franklin Institute Science Museum Book***
The World of Benjamin Franklin, The Franklin Institute
Some quotes from my own collection as well as those I collect as I go along
***an excellent resource for those of you who home school!! This is the book that fueled my interest in Benjamin Franklin!
Reader Comments (1)
Oh, I love Ben Franklin! What a renaissance man, and what a character! You have just inspired me to reread his autobiography!