The autobiography of benjamin franklin summary part 1

Edited transcript of a lecture delivered on April 5, 2006, at 6:00 p.m., at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.

This lecture was part of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Lecture Series, made possible through the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation.

Tonight’s discussion will revolve around examining the Autobiography and the question of personal writing.

The first issue is the question of memoir as a way of analyzing, shaping, and communicating a coherent story from the materials of lived experience.  I want to ask you whether theAutobiography of Benjamin Franklin is all that coherent of a story.  Is it a coherent at all?  If it is coherent, how?  What is the story that you see it telling?

Rags to riches, you might say.  Alright—except Franklin’s not all that ragged to begin with. He’s got a father who supports seventeen kids, finds apprenticeships—which are expensive—for all of them, or dow