June 5, 1752

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.” Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, and he has not been forgotten. He was a prolific writer as well as a printer, scientist, inventor, statesman, philosopher, musician, and economist.

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
In 1791, a year after Franklin’s death, his autobiography “Memoires De La Vie Privee” was published in Paris. The first English translation, “The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin….Originally Written By Himself, And Now Translated From The French,” was published in London in 1793. Originally written for Franklin’s son William, then the Governor of New Jersey, it is considered the greatest autobiography of Colonial America. If the brown right-hand border interferes with your view of the text, narrow your browser window so the text flows only over the yellow background.

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