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Benjamin Franklin
Carl Van Doren received the 1938 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for this work. It contains the most extensive collection of Benjamin Franklin's autobiographical writings, much of which was long out-of-print. Also included are some fifty letters written by Franklin that were never published before.
864 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
About the author
Carl van Doren
217 books11 followersCarl Clinton van Doren, a United States critic and biographer, won Pulitzer Prize. He was the brother of Mark van Doren and the uncle of Charles van Doren.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 22, 2022
Among my bibliophile friends, is a subset who enjoy historical biographies. A friend loaned me this bio of Benjamin Franklin, a 1939 Pulitzer winner that occupies >800 dense pages. I flinched, but Steve loved it, so I put my head down and tucked in.
Other than facts learned in grade school, my first exposure to Franklin was from his autobiography. What a man! Then I looked at him through John and Abigail Adams' eyes: lascivious and scandalous. What a jerk! So help me, after reading this I now find him charming and witty. And amazing. Though he is flawed, I applaud.
This is a sympathetic biography. I don't believe it crosses the line, but it is certainly in the suburbs of hagiography. Here's how it begins.
This is a long book. It could twice as easily have been three times as long. From Franklin's beginnings as a journalist at sixteen to his retirement from public affairs at eighty-two there was no break in his activity, and he was—and is—unsurpassed by any man in the range of his natural gifts and of the important uses he put them too.
I've copied quotes and made notes in more than 30 pages of my journal. Here are a few things I noticed:
♥ He lived a considerable time overseas as a diplomat. Ten years in England. Nine years in France. Before there was a United States, Franklin was its first ambassador.
♥ He was estranged from his son, William, because William (governor of New Jersey) was a loyalist. Their relationship before the war was very close.
♥ At one time he was considered the most famous man in the world
♥ His was inquisitive: electricity, Gulf stream, Scottish tunes, women's make up
♥ He loved children; he loved big families; BF's friends' children became BF's friends
♥ He shared a bed with John Adams when the inn was full
♥ He was the reason France loaned millions to America
♥ He was once a slave-owner, but ended his days as an abolitionist
♥ He is the epitome of an autodidact, a life-long learner
♥ The short list of people he personally knew: Cotton Mather, George Whitefield, King George III, Adam Smith, King Louis XVI, Edmund Burke, William Pitt, William Wilberforce
I don't think I've ever read an index of a book before, but I read this one as a review. And there it is: Nudism, BF's, 405. What?! Yep, he spent his first hour awake reading and writing sans clothes.
There were sections of slogging; but I can't remember them now. The closer to the end I got, the sharper my interest became.
Other than facts learned in grade school, my first exposure to Franklin was from his autobiography. What a man! Then I looked at him through John and Abigail Adams' eyes: lascivious and scandalous. What a jerk! So help me, after reading this I now find him charming and witty. And amazing. Though he is flawed, I applaud.
This is a sympathetic biography. I don't believe it crosses the line, but it is certainly in the suburbs of hagiography. Here's how it begins.
This is a long book. It could twice as easily have been three times as long. From Franklin's beginnings as a journalist at sixteen to his retirement from public affairs at eighty-two there was no break in his activity, and he was—and is—unsurpassed by any man in the range of his natural gifts and of the important uses he put them too.
I've copied quotes and made notes in more than 30 pages of my journal. Here are a few things I noticed:
♥ He lived a considerable time overseas as a diplomat. Ten years in England. Nine years in France. Before there was a United States, Franklin was its first ambassador.
♥ He was estranged from his son, William, because William (governor of New Jersey) was a loyalist. Their relationship before the war was very close.
♥ At one time he was considered the most famous man in the world
♥ His was inquisitive: electricity, Gulf stream, Scottish tunes, women's make up
♥ He loved children; he loved big families; BF's friends' children became BF's friends
♥ He shared a bed with John Adams when the inn was full
♥ He was the reason France loaned millions to America
♥ He was once a slave-owner, but ended his days as an abolitionist
♥ He is the epitome of an autodidact, a life-long learner
♥ The short list of people he personally knew: Cotton Mather, George Whitefield, King George III, Adam Smith, King Louis XVI, Edmund Burke, William Pitt, William Wilberforce
I don't think I've ever read an index of a book before, but I read this one as a review. And there it is: Nudism, BF's, 405. What?! Yep, he spent his first hour awake reading and writing sans clothes.
There were sections of slogging; but I can't remember them now. The closer to the end I got, the sharper my interest became.
November 20, 2008
Benjamin Franklin. 1939, by Carl Van Doran. This very detailed work must surely include at least one excerpt from every documented written word that Franklin ever composed. Carl Van Doran is skilled at framing the endless supply of witty quotes giving them context and definition. The in-congruencies between Franklin's own autobiography and Van Doran's biography are numerous and sometimes humorous. Written in his mid-eighties, Franklin shares in his autobiography that one of the secrets to his success lies in his ability to utilize time, insisting that he never squandered his evenings away drinking ale in pubs. Carl Van Doran manages to find a long list of hugely entertaining beer drinking songs composed and disseminated to friends by the young Benjamin Franklin himself! Besides singing in pubs, the breadth of Franklin's accomplishments are of course enormous. His life is worth knowing, the biography well written, making this book one of the best sellers of 1939.
February 5, 2019
Van Doren's biography relies heavily on long passages from the many personal letters and public writings of Benjamin Franklin. The strength of Van Doren's approach rests in the selections he offers in support of the modest narrative presented to the reader. Three aspects of Franklin's character and life become most prominent in the course of Van Doren's work. First, Franklin was an indefatigable natural philosopher who never ceased to engage in research and discussions of the most significant discoveries of the age. Franklin's detailed descriptions of his own experiments provide insight into a meticulous mind seeking a first principle or law on which to build scientific and philosophical knowledge. Second, Franklin seemed never to be far from a printing press, even going so far as to set up a press in his quarters in France during the American Revolutionary War. At a young age, he regarded the new technology as the key instrument of liberty: “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech: a thing terrible to public traitors.” (27) In his mature years as a diplomat and a humorist, he wielded the power of the press to satirize the official doctrines and agents of Great Britain with his most famous political tracts. Third, Franklin imagined America as a country at a time when it added up to less than the sum of its colonial parts. In the colonial era to 1757, he never ceased in the effort to build a continental community of acquaintances and learned men in his capacity as a printer and postmaster. Remarkably, during his long absence in England and France thereafter, his notion of American as a nation grew more clear and distinct in defense of the rights and interests of the colonists. After his political philosophy came to fruition in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, Franklin considered the new American nation best suited to those who lacked social station or economic means in their own nations: “When foreigners after looking about for some other country in which they can obtain more happiness give a preference to ours, it is a proof of attachment which ought to excite our confidence and affection.” (752) A biography for those with an interest in numerous excerpts from Benjamin Franklin's vast body of writings in historical context.
December 15, 2015
This book is an absolute masterpiece. One of the best biographies I have ever read about anyone. It is a very long book, but for good reason. There is so much detail about every aspect of Franklin's life, from his boyhood to his time as elder statesman. I learned so much about this amazing man, and came to love him dearly, as so many have done before me, because of every wonderful page of writing. I can't imagine how much work writing this incredible volume had to have taken, and how much research and painstaking digging into every facet of Franklin's being, and I can't praise Carl Van Doren enough. Everyone who loves our country, everyone who loves history, or who just "thinks" they know and love Franklin should read this incredible book!
April 26, 2013
I'm a fast reader, and this book is the only book ever to make me want to slow my reading and savor the author's words. Profound sentences I would read over and over again. It's a huge undertaking, to be sure, but worth every moment to read about about on of the Greatest Americans.
January 22, 2019
Not the best biography I've ever read, but still a very masterful interweaving of quotations from Franklin with the narrative of his life and influence. The first half was frustrating because it seemed mostly a re-stating and quoting of Franklin's autobiography, yet it makes sense that this would be the case, as Franklin's own account is really the only one existing.
Franklin himself was a fascinating individual and I love the curious way he looked at the world. He was never content to let some comment slide, e.g., when someone mentions that the Dutch barges go slower when the water in the canals is lower, he has to experiment to figure out why.
He may have softened in his Deism in later years, though still never came fully to acknowledge Christ. Still, it is easy to see why he was so famous and beloved in his own day and even today it would be difficult to find another his equal.
Franklin himself was a fascinating individual and I love the curious way he looked at the world. He was never content to let some comment slide, e.g., when someone mentions that the Dutch barges go slower when the water in the canals is lower, he has to experiment to figure out why.
He may have softened in his Deism in later years, though still never came fully to acknowledge Christ. Still, it is easy to see why he was so famous and beloved in his own day and even today it would be difficult to find another his equal.
Read
April 28, 2023Doren describes Benajmin Franklin's life in scrutinizing, meticulous detail. Franklin was truly one of a kind. I understand why Charlie Munger respects Franklin so much. If I could choose one single human on whom I can base my life, I would, indubitably, choose Franklin. Here lies a story of morals, science, the quest for knowledge, business, politics, love, and more.
February 8, 2017
This was one of the longest books on tape I have undertaken, and it was very rewarding. Franklin was a wonderful man and lived a tremendously interesting and pivotal life. He is one of the founding fathers, so the country's birth is woven into his own life story. He led an exemplary life, and I grew so attached to him during the telling that I was moved to tears at the moment of his death. His story reminded me of Alfred Sloan because both were intimately involved in the blossoming of a trade (print-Franklin) or an industry (automobiles-Sloan); and he reminded me of Samuel Johnson because he was so wise and literary.
November 8, 2013
More work than fun. Franklin is an amazing man, but this is not an amazing book. Truman the man was not half as interesting as Franklin the man, but Truman the book (by McCullough) is twice as interesting as this book! If you're interested in Franklin, find a different book.
April 11, 2011
A really nice biography which uses lots of contemporary primary sources (like diary excerpts) as opposed to only citing the usual sources like Franklin's autobiography written much later in his life, etc.
March 9, 2017
Still my favorite biography of Franklin (other than the Autobiography). Very long, but generally a pleasure to read.
February 9, 2018
I am fascinated by the life and times of Benjamin Franklin, he was born in 1706 and left Boston in 1722 to establish himself in Philadelphia. He established himself as one of America's first men of letters and as a eminent scientist. He was the first American to get recognition from Europe for his prodigious genius and talent. Through out the story, I was blown away by the breadth and depth of his interest in almost everything.
His accomplishment are many, they are scientific, political, and literary. He was one of the most famous people in the world in his time, and still may be historically one of the greatest of all time. I was constantly impressed by his wisdom, sagacity, and wit. He has many great quotes that still carry great truths today.
Carl Van Doren is an able Biographer, and brings as much of Dr. Franklin's own words, and of the words of his colleagues, as possible. Sometimes 2-3 pages are dedicated to the reading and analysis of some of Dr. Franklin's literary works, whether it is a letter to the Prime Minister of Britain or a casual private correspondence or a article published in a paper. I was able to get the full view of Dr. Franklin's thoughts, views, and actions (as much as history of this period allows). Very impressed by this book and story, I would recommend it to everyone.
His accomplishment are many, they are scientific, political, and literary. He was one of the most famous people in the world in his time, and still may be historically one of the greatest of all time. I was constantly impressed by his wisdom, sagacity, and wit. He has many great quotes that still carry great truths today.
Carl Van Doren is an able Biographer, and brings as much of Dr. Franklin's own words, and of the words of his colleagues, as possible. Sometimes 2-3 pages are dedicated to the reading and analysis of some of Dr. Franklin's literary works, whether it is a letter to the Prime Minister of Britain or a casual private correspondence or a article published in a paper. I was able to get the full view of Dr. Franklin's thoughts, views, and actions (as much as history of this period allows). Very impressed by this book and story, I would recommend it to everyone.
February 4, 2020
Benjamin Franklin was first a publisher, then a scientist, and finally the greatest diplomat America has ever produced. He led the quintessential American life, always wise, never snobbish, with the can do attitude for whatever happened to be his latest pursuit. This book details the life of a fascinating man whose life is deserving of the legend that has built up around it.
I laughed out loud at a quote of Franklin’s about John Adams. I think the quote could apply to me, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.
‘He means well for his country; is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his senses.’
I also liked another quote at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
‘Now we must all hang together,’ John Hancock said as he signed the Declaration.
To which Franklin replied, ‘Yes, we must all hang together or, most assuredly, we will all hang separately.’
Great Book!
I laughed out loud at a quote of Franklin’s about John Adams. I think the quote could apply to me, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.
‘He means well for his country; is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his senses.’
I also liked another quote at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
‘Now we must all hang together,’ John Hancock said as he signed the Declaration.
To which Franklin replied, ‘Yes, we must all hang together or, most assuredly, we will all hang separately.’
Great Book!
October 27, 2022
A slow, painfully academic read. Van Doren needs to chronicle every individual day of Franklin’s life and transcribe letters and journal entries verbatim. From negotiating an alliance with the French to the Constitutional Convention, you can be sure to get the tedious rundown of everyone who crossed Franklin’s path and why those who didn’t cross his path weren’t able to. This book could have easily been edited down by at least 25% if Van Doren didn’t feel the need to include so many of Franklin’s papers, letters, and speeches. I wonder if he got paid by the word.
October 11, 2021
The narrator was super boring and sounded robotic. I do not recommend the audiobook version.
December 2, 2021
Excellent writing on a fascinating and important figure. Sometimes books like these can get dry. This biography was engaging. Enjoy!
April 2, 2023
Fantastic book. Such rich detail about his life. A must read for any one who belongs to the Masonic fraternity, as well.
September 28, 2016
This biography tells the story of the remarkable life of Benjamin Franklin by closely following textual sources—during his early life mostly hewing to his own writings before expanding, during the revolutionary years, to include his extensive correspondence. In fact, I would venture that at least 50% of the text in this book is in the form of direct quotation, a much higher fraction than in any biography I have read before. For me, this approach worked well, since I went in with a strong interest in Franklin. But, for the more casual reader, the book could get boring.
I had never appreciated before reading this just how long Franklin had spent in Europe: decades first as agent in England and then as ambassador to France. van Doren advocates a point of view, which I think is well supported, that there were two principal leaders of the revolution: Washington, in America, trying to win the martial war and Franklin, in Paris, trying to win the war for funding, support, and recognition. As Jefferson wrote:
I had never appreciated before reading this just how long Franklin had spent in Europe: decades first as agent in England and then as ambassador to France. van Doren advocates a point of view, which I think is well supported, that there were two principal leaders of the revolution: Washington, in America, trying to win the martial war and Franklin, in Paris, trying to win the war for funding, support, and recognition. As Jefferson wrote:
"I told [Washington] that the world had drawn so broad a line between him and Dr. Franklin, on the one side, and the residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear mourning for them, and the question still remain new and undecided as to all others."
May 14, 2012
A comprehensive look at the man. NOT easy to read or follow. Once I figured out that it wasn't organized chronologically, rather by subject-each chapter starting chronologically on a different topic (loosely) it was easier to follow, but not terribly exciting reading.
Read
October 18, 2009extensive biography of Franklin with quotes
October 9, 2013
Way too in depth. I don't need to know every breath he took. Also, not a good narrative.
Want to read
July 14, 2015National Review recommendation.
Read
December 31, 2016Read 129 of 782 pages.
March 31, 2018
Third book on Benjamin. This one is excellent too
Read
May 29, 2018An incredible human being
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews