There have been numerous biographies of Benjamin Franklin, including his own notorious autobiography. This is the most charming and captivating account of all. Every chapter is a bewitching gem, and Franklin lives and breathes on every page.
This is the last book in Catherine Drinker Bowen’s brilliant career. With this, she did not intend to write a full narrative biography. Instead she proposed to write “only what interested me about this most consistently entertaining biographical subject.” Thus the book focuses on specific scenes in Franklin’s colorful life, including his youthful discoveries with electricity, activity in the Albany Congress of 1754, nine years in London and, of course, his part in America’s revolutionary plans.
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"A little disjointed, but that was the point of the author. It is NOT meant to be a biography. I really enjoyed the author's unedited commentary at the end." — Patience (4 out of 5 stars)
"A little disjointed, but that was the point of the author. It is NOT meant to be a biography. I really enjoyed the author's unedited commentary at the end."
“More interested in the cameo than the long shot, Bowen captures Franklin in his humors and his virtues—a puckish universal genius…Lots of genteel charm.”
" An indepth (and often tedious) look at various scenes of Benjamin Franklin's life. Quite thorough, and I can say that I am now thoroughly tired of Benjamin Franklin. "
Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973) was one of the most prominent practitioners in the field of literary biography. Her two best-known works, John Adams and the American Revolution and Yankee from Olympus, have been praised as faithful and sympathetic portraits of distinguished Americans.
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