Benjamin Franklin Part 18

_SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY_

Starred items are of primary importance.

I. WORKS

Only the most useful and historically significant editions are here listed. The student interested in other editions of Franklin's works, the publication of his separate pamphlets, his contributions to newspapers and periodicals, and his editorial activities should consult P. L. Ford's _Franklin Bibliography_. Many of these items are conveniently listed in _The Cambridge History of American Literature_, I, 442 ff.

_Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, By Mr. Benjamin Franklin, and Communicated in several Letters to P. Collinson, of London, F. R. S._ London: 1751. (For various editions and translations of this and the supplementary letters added to first edition, consult Ford's _Bibliography_.)

_Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces; ... Written by Benj. Franklin, LL. D. and F. R. S.... Now first collected, With Explanatory Plates, Notes_, ... [ed. by Benjamin Vaughan]. London: 1779. ("The work is ably performed, many pieces being for the first time printed as Franklin's; and contains valuable notes. But what gives a special value to this collection is that it is the only edition of Franklin's writings [other than his scientific], which was printed during his life time; was done with Franklin's knowledge and consent, and contains an 'errata' made by him for it" [Ford, p. 161].

Review in _Monthly Review_, LXII, 199-210, 298-308, describes his electrical experiments as const.i.tuting a "_principia_" of electricity.

See also Smyth, VII, 410-13, for Franklin's own opinion.)

_Memoires de la vie privee de Benjamin Franklin, ecrits par luimeme, et adresses a son fils; suivis d'un precis historique de sa vie politique, et de plusieurs pieces, relatives a ce pere de la liberte._ Paris: 1791. (First edition of Franklin's _Autobiography_ to the year 1731; translation attributed to Dr. Jacques Gibelin. "The remainder of his life is a translation from Wilmer's _Memoirs_ of Franklin, with the most objectionable statements omitted" [Ford, p. 183]. For a succinct history of _Autobiography_, editions, printing, translation, and fortunes of the MS see Bigelow's introduction to _Autobiography_.)

_Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. F. R. S.

&c.... Written by himself to a late period, and continued to the time of his death, by his Grandson; William Temple Franklin. Now first published from the original MSS...._ 3 vols. London: 1818. (The standard collection, according to A. H. Smyth, until Sparks's edition.

Representative review in _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_, XI, 449-84, June, 1818.)

_The Works of Benjamin Franklin; containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official and private not hitherto published; with notes and a life of the author_, by Jared Sparks. 10 vols. Boston: 1836-1840. (Although Sparks took undesirable editorial liberties with the MSS, rephrasing, emending, and deleting, this edition still possesses value for its notes and inclusion of pieces which Smyth does not include, but which _may_ have been written by Franklin. Includes many valuable letters to Franklin. For reviews see _North American Review_, LIX, 446, and Lx.x.xIII, 402.)

_Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Edited from his Ma.n.u.script, with Notes and an Introduction_, by John Bigelow. Philadelphia: 1868. (To quote Ford: "This is not only the first appearance of the autobiography from Franklin's own copy, but also the first publication in English of the four parts, and the first publication of the very important 'outline' autobiography. It is therefore the first edition of _the_ autobiography" [p. 199].)

_The Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself. Now first edited from original ma.n.u.scripts and from his printed correspondence and other writings_, by John Bigelow. 3 vols. Philadelphia: 1874.

(Bigelow text of _Autobiography_ and extracts from Franklin's other works.)

_The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin including his private as well as his official and scientific correspondence, and numerous letters and doc.u.ments now for the first time printed with many others not included in any former collection, also the unmutilated and correct version of his autobiography._ Comp. and ed. by John Bigelow. 10 vols.

New York: 1887-1889. (Corrects many of Sparks's errors and adds "some six hundred new pieces." For first time works are chronologically arranged.)

*_The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, collected and edited with a Life and Introduction_, by Albert Henry Smyth. 10 vols. New York: 1905-1907. (The standard edition. It is unfortunate that the editor has omitted pieces which are either too Rabelaisian or too metaphysically radical, such as the _Dissertation_ of 1725, or are, in his mind, _probably_ not written by Franklin.)

II. COLLECTIONS AND REPRINTS

No attempt has been made to include the learned journal articles which reprint occasional letters not in Smyth. Letters which aid in understanding Franklin's mind have been referred to in the Introduction and Notes.

Chinard, Gilbert. _Les amities americaines de Madame d'Houdetot, d'apres sa correspondance inedite avec Benjamin Franklin et Thomas Jefferson._ Paris: 1924.

Diller, Theodore. _Franklin's Contribution to Medicine._ Brooklyn: 1912.

(Able collection of Franklin's letters bearing on medicine. Franklin is described "as one of the greatest benefactors, friends, and patrons of the medical profession as well as a most substantial contributor to the science and art of medicine.")

[Franklin, Benjamin.] _A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain._ Reproduced from the first edition, with a bibliographical note by Lawrence C. Wroth. The Facsimile Text Society, New York: 1930.

(Although A. H. Smyth omitted this work from his _Writings of Benjamin Franklin_, suggesting that "the work has no value," it is difficult to see how a study of the _modus operandi_ of Franklin's mind could be thoroughly made without it. Parton in his _Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin_, and I. W. Riley in his _American Philosophy: The Early Schools_ have reprinted it in appendices.)

Franklin, Benjamin. _Poor Richard's Almanack. Being the Almanacks of 1733, 1749, 1756, 1757, 1758, first written under the name of Richard Saunders._ With a foreword by Phillips Russell. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. ("First facsimile edition of a group of the Almanacks to be published.")

Franklin, Benjamin. _The Prefaces, Proverbs, and Poems of Benjamin Franklin Originally Printed in Poor Richard's Almanacs for 1733-1758._ Collected and ed. by P. L. Ford. Brooklyn: 1890. (Best collection of its kind; in addition contains account of popularity and function of almanacs in colonial period.)

Franklin, Benjamin. _Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania._ Facsimile reprint, with an introduction by William Pepper. Philadelphia: 1931. (Franklin's notes omitted in Smyth.

_Proposals_ also reprinted by the William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan: 1927; "though not a facsimile reprint," it does include the notes. Thomas Woody in his _Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin_ [New York: 1931] reprints it with the notes.)

Franklin, Benjamin. _The Sayings of Poor Richard, 1733-1758._ Condensed and ed. by T. H. Russell. N.p.: n.d. (Best aphorisms chronologically arranged.)

Goodman, N. G., ed. _The Ingenious Dr. Franklin; Selected Scientific Letters of Benjamin Franklin._ Philadelphia: 1931. (Includes several items not published in Smyth edition.)

_Letters to Benjamin Franklin, from his Family and Friends, 1751-1790._ [Ed. by William Duane.] New York: 1859.

Pepper, William. _The Medical Side of Benjamin Franklin._ Philadelphia: 1911. (Essentially quotations from the A. H. Smyth edition. Franklin is viewed as "an early and great hygienist.")

Stifler, J. M., ed. "_My Dear Girl._" _The Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin with Polly Stevenson, Georgiana and Catherine s.h.i.+pley._ New York: 1927. (Engaging collection showing Franklin's "capacity for lively and enduring friends.h.i.+p" [p. vii]. Many of the letters _to_ Franklin "printed now for the first time." Contains several of Franklin's letters. .h.i.therto unpublished.)

III. BIOGRAPHIES

Becker, Carl. "Benjamin Franklin," in _Dictionary of American Biography_. New York: 1931. VI, 585-98. (The most authoritative brief biography.)

*Bruce, W. C. _Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed._ 2 vols. New York: 1917. (In spite of occasional extravagant statements and a conservative temperament preventing him from discussing Franklin's religion with sympathetic and historical insight, Mr. Bruce has provided a brilliant and perspicuous survey. "Self-revealed" fails to do justice to Bruce's incisive commentary.)

*Fa, Bernard. _Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times._ Boston: 1929. (A readable critical biography said to be based on "six hundred to nine hundred unpublished letters." Would have been more useful had it been given scholarly doc.u.mentation. Some new light on Franklin's Masonic activities and his efforts during 1757-1762 to effect the growth of a British empire. [Fa used the Franklin-Galloway correspondence in the W. S. Mason and W. L. Clements collections.] Believes that Franklin was a "follower of the seventeenth-century English Pythagoreans": since this belief is largely undoc.u.mented, one feels it curious that Pythagoreanism should bulk larger than the pattern of thought provoked by Locke and Newton. See very critical reviews by H. M. Jones in _American Literature_, II, 306-12 [Nov., 1930], and W. C. Bruce, _American Historical Review_, x.x.xV, 634 ff. [April, 1930]. The latter concludes that "there is very little, indeed, in the text of the book under review that makes any unquestionably substantial addition to our pre-existing knowledge of Franklin, or is marked by anything that can be termed freshness of interpretation.")

Fa, Bernard. _The Two Franklins: Fathers of American Democracy._ Boston: 1933. (Charmingly spirited portrait of patriarchal Franklin of Pa.s.sy [reworking of materials in _Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times_]. Fa's habit of mingling quotation, paraphrase, and intuition in use of Bache's Diary suggests untrustworthy doc.u.mentation. The second Franklin is, of course, Benjamin Franklin Bache [1769-1798, son of Sally Franklin and Richard Bache], editor of the republican _Aurora General Advertiser_. For a judicial, unsympathetic review see A.

Guerard's in the _New York Herald Tribune Books_, Oct. 22, 1933. J. A.

Krout, in the _American Historical Review_, x.x.xIX, 741-2 [July, 1934], observes that Fa "fails to establish the elder Franklin's paternal relation to the democratic forces of the 'revolutionary' decade after 1790.")

Fisher, S. G. _The True Benjamin Franklin._ Philadelphia: 1899. (Highly prejudiced interpretation with disproportionate attention to Franklin's acknowledged shortcomings.)

*Ford, P. L. _The Many-Sided Franklin._ New York: 1899. (A gracefully solid and inclusive standard work.)

Hale, E. E., and Hale, E. E., Jr. _Franklin in France. From Original Doc.u.ments, Most of Which Are Now Published for the First Time._ 2 vols. Boston: 1887-1888. (Convenient collection of letters to Franklin; authors had access to Stevens and American Philosophical Society collections. Franklin letters and doc.u.ments here given later published in Smyth. Useful chapters on Franklin's friends, his vogue in France, meetings with Voltaire, his activities in science, his interest in balloons, and investigation of Mesmerism. See reviews in _Dial_, VIII, 7, IX, 204; _Nation_, XLIV, 368; _Athenaeum_, II, 77 [1887]; _Atlantic Monthly_, LX, 318.)

McMaster, J. B. _Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters._ American Men of Letters series. Boston: 1887. (Fullest account of this aspect of the many-minded Franklin. See also MacLaurin and Jorgenson items, pp.

clxv, clxvi below.)

More, P. E. _Benjamin Franklin._ Riverside Biographical Series. Boston: 1900. (Suggestive of a _precis_ of Parton's _Life_ with judicial, if not historical, penetration. Stimulating notes, such as the following: Franklin was "a great pagan, who lapsed now and then into the pseudo-religious plat.i.tudes of the eighteenth-century deists.")

Morse, John Torrey, Jr. _Benjamin Franklin._ American Statesmen series.

Boston: 1889. (Compact account stressing his political and diplomatic career.)

*Parton, James. _Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin._ 2 vols. New York: 1864. (Although not all works ascribed to Franklin by Parton are by his pen, and although new materials have been added to the Franklin canon, he remains the most encyclopedic and often the most penetrating of Franklin's biographers. He deserves credit for printing in an appendix Franklin's _Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain_. For reviews see _North American Review_ [July, 1864]; _Atlantic Monthly_ [Sept., 1864]; _London Quarterly_, XXIII, 483; _Littell's Living Age_, Lx.x.xIV, 289.)

Russell, Phillips. _Benjamin Franklin, the First Civilised American._ New York: 1926. (The _esprit_ and readableness of this popular work do not offset its lack of precision, historical scholars.h.i.+p, and taste.)

Smyth, Albert H. "Life of Benjamin Franklin," in Vol. X, 141-510, of _The Writings of Benjamin Franklin_. (Stimulating survey.)