MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, WITH THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF A MAJOR PART OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, IN SCARCE ORIGINAL BOARDS

FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin… Written by Himself to a Late Period, and Continued to the Time of His Death by His Grandson, William Temple Franklin… Published from the Original MSS. London: Henry Colburn, 1818-19. Six volumes. Octavo, original green cloth spines and drab paper boards, original paper spine labels, uncut and partially unopened.

Third English edition, including the first three parts of Franklin’s Autobiography as it was originally written by him, being the first appearance in any form of the third part (1731-57), and his grandson’s continuation to 1790, and also containing his correspondence and posthumous writings. With engraved frontispiece portrait in Volume I and a facsimile of Franklin’s handwriting in Volume II.

Franklin’s Autobiography was first published in French translation in 1791, and contained only the first two parts. Franklin had written his memoirs in four parts, at four different periods, between the years 1771 and 1789. Yet, curiously, only the first two appeared in the French edition, and all of the English versions up to 1818 were re-translations from the French. This 1818 edition, then, prepared by Franklin’s grandson and heir William Temple Franklin, is the first to be set from an original English manuscript, rather than indirectly from translations or re-translations, and contains the first appearance ever of Franklin’s third part, covering the years 1731 to 1757 (on pages 143-258 of Volume I). The very short (only three pages) fourth part, in which Franklin explains briefly the events of a London visit and the important happenings of 1757, was inadvertently omitted. At one time, William Temple Franklin had possessed the complete four-part manuscript, entirely in Franklin’s hand, but unwittingly traded it for an incomplete copy (lacking the fourth part), hence the publication here of only the three. It wasn’t until 1868 that editor John Bigelow discovered and published part four. Throughout the second half of Volume I and the whole of Volume II, William continues his grandfather’s Life through the year of his death in 1790, and supplies a supplement, appendix, and index. Often found incomplete as the first two volumes only, this set also includes two volumes of Franklin’s correspondence and two volumes of posthumous and other writings. A three-volume quarto edition appeared at the same time. Ford 564, 571. Sabin 25545. See Howes F323.

Interior quite clean, only minor wear to boards. A near-fine copy, scarce in original boards.