Collecting the Works of Benjamin Franklin

Printer. Journalist. Essayist. Politician. Scientist. Philanthropist. Diplomat. Revolutionary. Founding Father. At one point or another, Benjamin Franklin was each of these things, and many more besides. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Franklin was one of the great American polymaths of the 18th century. While still at the beginning of his career, Franklin wrote for himself what may be the best known American epitaph. It is both amusing and instructive:

The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.

This is, of course, vintage Franklin in its gentle and slightly inappropriate sense of humor (it has been said that the delegates of the Continental Congress feared entrusting to Franklin the writing of the Declaration of Independence lest he put a joke in it). But it also demonstrates some other salient things about Franklin. Despite his vast array of achievements, Franklin always identified himself as a printer, even to the point of bringing a small personal press with him to France, which he set up in his house at Passy in 1776. And he also identified with what he printed: in some sense, Franklin is best represented by the books he printed. Or, as Esmond Wright has said in Franklin of Philadelphia, "Franklin himself is his own creation. He made books, and he made news--and his books and news 'made' Franklin."



This unique mix of important achievement combined with an intimate association with every stage of the bookmaking process--Franklin wrote, edited, printed, published, and sold books, after all--makes Franklin a particularly appropriate focus for the book collector. With Franklin, one is not only collecting the works of one of the most fascinating figures in American history; Franklin touches on almost all that is innovative and important in America in the 18th century, so that the Franklin collector is in a broad sense exploring the entire 18th century through his or her collection of Franklin and Frankliniana.



Franklin is, for instance, an important figure in the history of American printing. Until the 18th century a combination of factors--expense and the desire of colonial governments to restrict the availability of controversial works--prevented the development of many presses in America, particularly outside of Massachusetts. Thus, when Benjamin Franklin was apprenticed to his brother, James Franklin, in 1718, there were only five printers in Boston and under ten in all the colonies. The productions of any of these presses would be rare and desirable. But a work such as Henry Care's English Liberties, published by James Franklin in 1721, would be particularly desirable: not only does it include the first printing in America of the Magna Carta, a central document of political liberty, but 15-year old Benjamin Franklin set the type for it, thus exposing him to the tenets of personal rights and liberty that he would devote much of his life to gaining and protecting for the American colonies. Likewise, although any production of Franklin's own press in Philadelphia is important and valuable as a Franklin imprint, it is often also valuable because it is the first edition or first American edition. A few examples of this point include: Elementa Philosophica in 1752 (first American textbook in moral philosophy), William Sewell's History of the Quakers in 1728 (first edition of an early and important Quaker history) and Cato Major in 1744 (only the second classic author to be translated and published in America).



Along with Thomas Jefferson, Franklin is a foundational figure in American science. His experiments with lightning and electricity made him world-famous, made him, in fact, the premier international celebrity of his day. The news of Franklin's successful kite experiment was first published in 1753 in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions; the collected edition in 1754 of Franklin's New Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in America is generally considered the most important scientific book of 18th-century America. Throughout his life Franklin continued to publish other editions, often significantly revising them and adding new material; thus any edition published during his lifetime is sought by collectors.



Likewise, Franklin is a key figure in the revolutionary struggle, attending both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention (and signing the Declaration of Independence), serving as the London agent for numerous colonies, and representing the fledgling United States in France. Many of Franklin's political writings were to have important consequences. His pamphlet The Interest of Great Britain Considered with Regard to her Colonies (1760), for instance, presented an argument for the British retention of Canada over Guadaloupe after the French and Indian War, an argument the British ultimately accepted. In 1766, his testimony before Parliament was essential in bringing about the repeal of the hated Stamp Act, a testimony which can be found in The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, before an August Assembly, relating to the Repeal of the Stamp-Act, printed in Philadelphia in the same year. The only collection of his works authorized by Franklin in his lifetime (Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces, first published in 1779) published many of these important Franklin writings, some for the first time.



And of course there are Franklin's best-known works: Poor Richard's Almanac and his Autobiography. From the first, "the almanac had been the quintessential product of the colonial printer. Almost every printer produced one, as it was almost guaranteed to turn a good profit. But the almanac was more than just a profitable book; issued annually, it came to epitomize the American condition and conversely to shape a distinctly American viewpoint" (The Book in America, 29). But Franklin's Almanac, with its delightful and earthy Poor Richard as the supposed author, was by far the most successful of the almanacs, establishing both Franklin's fortune and his initial fame (at least within the colonies). But as they were meant only as annuals, they were often not saved, and copies of Poor Richard's Almanac are rare and thus correspondingly very collectible.



Of Franklin's Autobiography it has been said that it is the first American book that belongs permanently to literature, and that it "holds the essence of the American way of life" (Grolier 21). It was also extraordinarily popular, and quickly went through many editions. First published in 1791 in French as Memoires de la Vie Privee de Benjamin Franklin, it appeared in English for the first time in 1793 (as The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin) in a London edition that was a retranslation from the French; the first edition from the original English did not appear until 1818, edited by Franklin's grandson. All early editions--English or American, in English, German, French, Italian--are much sought after by collectors.



This is hardly an exhaustive list of Franklin's important printings and publications: his Information to Those who Would Remove to America (1783), for instance, became something of an immigrant's vade mecum and was translated into many languages and distributed broadly throughout Europe. One could go on, of course. And that is part of the interest; Franklin was a member of perhaps the last generation in which one person's talents could range so extensively and successfully through human endeavor, when one could be successful in science and politics and literature at the same time. But what a list such as this does demonstrate is that there is a place for Benjamin Franklin in many different collections, because Franklin made lasting contributions in so many areas.