My Life with Benjamin Franklin

✍ Scribed by Patrick J. Mahony

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 283
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This delightful book is a collection of incidental pieces that reveal little-known aspects of the life and personality of Benjamin Franklin. Written by the doyenne of Franklin scholars, it conveys Franklin’s humor, resiliency, courage, and intelligence, and his faith in a better future.

The selections are based on Claude-Anne Lopez’s research in the treasure trove of nearly thirty thousand documents on Franklin assembled at Yale University. They include a detailed refutation of an anti-Semitic forgery attributed to Franklin and currently circulating on the Internet; three mini-detective stories showing Franklin on the fringes of the espionage world; discussions of Franklin’s efforts to outfit Washington’s army and to choose the first dinner set for the Foreign Service; and the tale of the misadventures of a French utopian scheme he sponsored. The only piece of fiction in the book is an imaginary party during which, on the first anniversary of his death, six illustrious Frenchmen discuss Franklin’s influence on their country. Lopez has provided brief personal introductions to each of the pieces, giving her reasons for writing them and in the process threading the essays together.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
A chronology of Franklin's Life and Curiosity
Introduction: Benjamin Franklin Enters My life
Part I: Some Facets of Franklin's Personality
1. Franklin, Hitler, Mussolini, and the Internet
2. The Only Founding Father in a Sports Hall of Fame
3. Three Women, Three Styles
4. Grand father, Fathers, And Sons
Part II: Enigmas and Tricks
5. The Man Who Frightened Franklin
6. Franklin and the Unfortunate Divine
7. Franklin's Most Baffling Correspondent
8. Franklin and the Mystery Turk: The Morals of Chess
9. Franklin and Mesmer: A Confrontation
Part III: His Country's Envoy
10. Outfitting One's Country for War: A Study in Frustration
11. Franklin's Choice of a Dinner Set
12. Franklin and the Nine Sisters
13. The Duchess, the Plenipotentiary, and the Golden Cap of Liberty
14. Franklin Plays Cupid
15. Was Franklin Too French?
Part IV: Back at Home
16. Innocents on the Ohio: The American Utopia of Dr. Guillotin
17. Franklin and Slavery: A Sea Change
Epilogue: Around the Table, They Remember Franklin
Abbreviations
Notes
Index