The Man on the C-Note:
Benjamin Franklin, An American Life
By Bruce Collier February 12, 2004 Issue

A handful of Americans have achieved icon status. For example, most people in this country recognize the image of Abraham Lincoln. They may not be able to say what he did, or even name him, but the face is familiar. Few images are more recognizable than that of Benjamin Franklin, the Philadelphia printer, scientist, diplomat and sage, whose 84-year lifespan saw four English and three French monarchs, numerous wars, two revolutions, and the framing of two of the world’s most remarkable political documents. In Benjamin Franklin, An American Life, Walter Isaacson pierces the icon. Extensively researched and footnoted, with thorough source notes and index, this one-volume biography presents a fully rounded portrait of an endlessly fascinating human being.

Often described as completely self-taught, the Boston-born Franklin received some formal education at Boston Latin School, to prepare him for the ministry. Though Franklin placed at the top of his class, his father declined to enroll him at Harvard. Isaacson . nds this puzzling, since even if Franklin’s father could not afford tuition, Franklin’s grades “would easily have won him a scholarship to Harvard.” Historians have speculated on what effect Harvard would have had on Franklin’s intellect. Isaacson comments only that Franklin would probably never have become a minister anyway. In fact, “his rebellious nature may even have been enhanced” at Harvard, at the time Boston’s number-one party school. Franklin did, in fact, take up his own education through a carefully planned program of reading and by cultivating the acquaintance of experts in every field.

A former CNN chairman and Time magazine editor himself, Isaacson calls Franklin the first great master of the press in America. Realizing the vital importance of distribution, Franklin secured for himself the position of postmaster of Philadelphia. This guaranteed and increased the distribution of his Pennsylvania Gazette and allowed him to control (and eventually refuse) distribution to his competitor, the American Weekly Mercury. This is less shocking when we learn that the printer of the Mercury was the former postmaster, and had done the same thing to Franklin. Both men addressed the problem in the same way: they bribed the couriers, an apparently acceptable practice in those days. Think about that the next time stamp prices are raised.

The Franklin we know from the paintings on school library and statehouse walls is an old man near the end of a long career. In 1776, the 71 year-old Franklin helped write the Declaration of Independence, with a great many accomplishments already behind him. The list is astonishing, and only partial: printer, publisher, postmaster, theorist of electricity and physics, inventor, founder of America’s . rst lending library, founder of what became the University of Pennsylvania, envoy to the Indian tribes, and militia organizer. In 1782, he helped negotiate (in Paris) the treaty that ended the American Revolution. He also found time to write his famous Autobiography, and for an equally active and varied private life.

Franklin’s relationship with his illegitimate son William is a central theme of the book. As is generally known, William Franklin became Royal Governor of New Jersey and remained loyal to Great Britain during the Revolution. Father and son eventually patched up their estrangement, barely. An interesting sidelight: William himself fathered a child out of wedlock, who in turn fathered a child out of wedlock.

Franklin’s attitude toward family is an intriguing side of his character. He lived apart from Deborah, his common-law wife, for long periods of time when in England, showing little interest in sending for her. He even missed her death. Isaacson suggests that Franklin preferred to make his own extended or surrogate “families” in America, England, and France. Friends, the children of friends, and kindred souls of both sexes receive a great deal more affection in his letters than do his wife and natural son. Franklin also loved clubs and societies organized for social, scienti. c, and business purposes. He was a master at what is now called “networking,” skillfully blending business and fellowship.

Another, and perhaps the most important of Franklin’s character traits was his capacity for compromise in political, social, and religious matters. This, says Isaacson, marks him as a true son of the 18th century enlightenment, as well as a true democrat. Franklin went to Philadelphia in 1787 ostensibly to help amend the Articles of Confederation, the governmental association under which the colonies had fought and won the Revolution. That gathering came to be known as the Constitutional Convention, and its work product was the Constitution of the United States. Though ill, Franklin worked diligently at the convention, settling what could be settled, and leaving aside what could not, notably slavery. Franklin opposed slavery, but he joined his colleagues in putting off the question, ultimately settled by war.

Isaacson closes the book with an assessment. Benjamin Franklin’s words and actions reveal a deeply complex man, both simple and subtle, who imprinted his personality and philosophy on America. For better or worse, what has come to be known as the American character owes a great deal to the individual character of Benjamin Franklin. (Top)

Benjamin Franklin, An American Life, by Walter Isaacson, 590 pages, Simon & Schuster, available at bookstores and libraries.

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