J. A. Leo Lemay - The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1.pdf

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The Life of enjamin ranklin
volume 1
The Life of
enjamin ran lin
volume 1
ournali
1706–1730
J. A. Leo Lemay
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright
2006
University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19104–4112
Text design by Pat Callahan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lemay, J. A. Leo (Joseph A. Leo),
1935–
The life of Benjamin Franklin / J. A. Leo Lemay.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v.
1.
Journalist,
1706–1730
ISBN
0-8122-3854-0
(v.
1
: acid-free paper)
1.
Franklin, Benjamin,
1706–1790. 2.
Statesmen—United States—Biography.
3.
Scientists—United States—Biography.
4.
Inventors—United States—Biography.
5.
Printers—United States—Biography. I. Title.
E302.6.F8L424
2005
973.3 092—dc22
[B]
2004063130
Front end papers:
Franklin’s Boston, drawn by Nian-Sheng Huang, based on John
Bonner’s map of Boston (1722).
Frontispiece:
Franklin’s first extant letter, written at age nineteen, to Sir Hans Sloane,
founder of the British Museum,
2
June
1725.
As Franklin remembered the event in
1771,
Sloane (1660–1753) heard of Franklin’s purse made of asbestos, ‘‘came to see me, and
invited me to his House in Bloomsbury Square; where he show’d me all his Curiosities,
and persuaded me to let him add that to the Number, for which he paid me handsomely’’
(A
44).
Though Franklin recalled the event incorrectly, the meeting with the great
naturalist Sloane was important enough for him to mention forty-six years later. The
letter documents Franklin’s early interest in natural philosophy. He later experimented
with making paper from asbestos.
The ink’s absorption into the paper reveals that Franklin wrote this letter on
inexpensive stationery. In comparison to the promissory note of
5
May
1724,
the
handwriting is relatively graceful, though not so beautiful as Franklin’s later holograph.
Not only did Franklin evidently try to write a better hand in his letter to Sloane in
1725
than he had in his promissory note of the year before, but a comparison of the
handwriting in this letter with the penmanship of the promissory note (Figure
20)
and
with handwriting in the epitaph (Figure
22,
written much later) shows that as a young
adult Franklin practiced and improved his handwriting. His early signature used the full
name and often had a flourish underneath; the later ones generally used simply ‘‘B.
Franklin,’’ with a less ornate flourish or none.
Back end papers:
Franklin’s London,
1725–26.
John Strype’s map in John Stow,
A Survey
of the Cities of London & Westminster
(1720). Courtesy, Huntington Library. Locations
supplied by Marina Fedosik.

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