The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions) (Benjamin Franklin)

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions)
The Autobiography of Benjamin <b>Franklin</b> (Dover Thrift Editions)” align=”left” style=”margin-right: 15px;” /> <div>One of the most popular works of American literature, this charming self-portrait has been translated into nearly every language. It covers <b>Franklin</b>‘s life up to his prewar stay in London as representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly, including his boyhood years, work as a printer, experiments with electricity, political career, much more.</div> <p> <b>Author:</b> Benjamin <b>Franklin</b> <br /> <b>Paperback:</b>  144 pages <br /> <b>Company:</b> Dover Publications  (1996-06-07) <br /> <b>ISBN:</b> 0486290735<br /> <b>List Price:</b> $2.50<br /> <b>Amazon Price:</b> $0.38<br /> <b>Used Price:</b> $0.01</p> <p><a target=Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4)
Ben <b>Franklin</b> and the Magic Squares (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4)” align=”left” style=”margin-right: 15px;” /> A funny, entertaining introduction to Ben <b>Franklin</b> and his many inventions, including the story of how he created the “magic square.” A magic square is a box of nine numbers arranged so that any line of three numbers adds up to the same number, including on the diagonal! Teachers and kids will love finding out about this popular teaching tool that is still used in elementary schools today!</p> <p> <b>Author:</b> Frank Murphy <br /> <b>Paperback:</b>  48 pages <br /> <b>Company:</b> Random House Books for Young Readers  (2001-02-27) (2001-02-27) <br /> <b>ISBN:</b> 0375806210<br /> <b>List Price:</b> $3.99<br /> <b>Amazon Price:</b> $0.12<br /> <b>Used Price:</b> $0.01</p> <p><a target=Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Benjamin <b>Franklin</b>: An American Life” align=”left” style=”margin-right: 15px;” /> Benjamin <b>Franklin</b>, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait. What’s more, Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege. That broadly democratic sensibility allowed <b>Franklin</b> his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, <b>Franklin</b> wasn’t shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn’t shy from enumerating <b>Franklin</b>‘s occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of our time–none of which, however, stops him from considering Benjamin <b>Franklin</b> “the most accomplished American of his age,” and one of the most admirable of any era. And here’s one bit of proof: as a young man, Ben <b>Franklin</b> regularly went without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one–and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. <I>–Gregory McNamee</I></p> <p> <b>Author:</b> Walter Isaacson <br /> <b>Paperback:</b>  608 pages <br /> <b>Company:</b> Simon & Schuster  (2004-05-04) <br /> <b>ISBN:</b> 074325807X<br /> <b>List Price:</b> $18.00<br /> <b>Amazon Price:</b> $6.21<br /> <b>Used Price:</b> $4.75</p> <p><a target=Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos
Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin <b>Franklin</b> by His Good Mouse Amos” align=”left” style=”margin-right: 15px;” /> In <i>A New and Astonishing Life Of Benjamin <b>Franklin</b> As Written by His Good Mouse AMOS,</i> young readers will discover that while the good Mr. <b>Franklin</b> got considerable credit, many of his most important contributions <i>really</i> originated with Amos, a less-than-humble rodent. Oh sure, his manuscript was found by author-editor Robert Lawson and published first in 1939, but discerning readers ever since have figured that it’s the mouse who’s the fellow with the … tale. (For ages 10 and up with a sense of humor)</p> <p> <b>Author:</b> Robert Lawson <br /> <b>Paperback:</b>  114 pages <br /> <b>Company:</b> Little, Brown Young Readers  (1988-04-30) <br /> <b>ISBN:</b> 0316517305<br /> <b>List Price:</b> $6.99<br /> <b>Amazon Price:</b> $1.85<br /> <b>Used Price:</b> $0.67</p> <p><a target=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin <b>Franklin</b>” align=”left” style=”margin-right: 15px;” /> Benjamin <b>Franklin</b> may have been the most remarkable American ever to live: a printer, scientist, inventor, politician, diplomat, and–finally–an icon. His life was so sweeping that this comprehensive biography by H.W. Brands at times reads like a history of the United States during the 18th century. <b>Franklin</b> was at the center of America’s transition from British colony to new nation, and was a kind of Founding Grandfather to the Founding Fathers; he was a full generation older than George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, and they all viewed him with deep respect. “Of those patriots who made independence possible, none mattered more than <b>Franklin</b>, and only Washington mattered as much,” writes Brands (author of a well-received Teddy Roosevelt biography, <I>T.R.: The Last Romantic</I>). <b>Franklin</b> was a complex character who sometimes came up a bit short in the personal virtue department, once commenting, “That hard-to-be-governed passion of youth had hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way.” When he married, another woman was already pregnant with his child–a son he took into his home and had his wife raise. <p> <b>Franklin</b> is best remembered for other things, of course. His still-famous <I>Poor Richard’s Almanac</I> helped him secure enough financial freedom as a printer to retire and devote himself to the study of electricity (which began, amusingly, with experiments on chickens). His mind never rested: He invented bifocals, the armonica (a musical instrument made primarily of glass), and, in old age, a mechanical arm that allowed him to reach books stored on high shelves. He served American interests as a diplomat in Europe; without him, France might not have intervened in the American Revolution. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He possessed a sense of humor, too. In 1776, when John Hancock urged the colonies to “hang together,” <b>Franklin</b> is said to have commented, “We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” <b>Franklin</b>‘s accomplishments were so numerous and varied that they threaten to read like a laundry list. Yet Brands pours them into an engrossing narrative, and they leap to life on these pages as the grand story of an exceptional man. <I>The First American</I> is an altogether excellent biography. <I>–John J. Miller</I> </p> <p> <b>Author:</b> H.W. Brands <br /> <b>Paperback:</b>  784 pages <br /> <b>Company:</b> Anchor  (2002-03-12) (2002-03-12) <br /> <b>ISBN:</b> 0385495404<br /> <b>List Price:</b> $17.00<br /> <b>Amazon Price:</b> $6.99<br /> <b>Used Price:</b> $1.65</p> <div class=

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By Ben, on June 14, 2008 at 10:00 am, under Ben Franklin. No Comments
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