The Racy Memoirs of the Young Ben Franklin

Benjamin Franklin-racy? When we think of Franklin, we think of a statesman, an inventor, a man of worldly wisdom-and a man temperate in all his affairs. The last thing we think of is racy. But Franklin's own words, written in a letter to his son, tell of the scrapes, the tricks, the imbroglios and the intrigues that young Ben was party to. Did you know that Ben had to post bail for himself? Or that he was afraid of contracting a venereal disease? Did you know that he jilted a girl? And engaged in bribery? These "little family anecdotes of no importance to others," as Ben called them, make for great reading. And inspirational reading, as well, for from these anecdotes we learn that a great man is, after all, only human, and that a successful life is not without its mistakes, or "errata," as Ben called them. Without changing Franklin's words or spelling at all, the editor of this edition has broken Franklin's text down into "bite-sized" paragraphs, assigned memorable headings to his stories by selecting from the very words he used, and split the work into natural chapters with chapter headings. An index was also added. Finally, the work was laid out in a relatively large type, with plenty of white space so as not to overwhelm with the too-dense, too-daunting print of earlier editions of Franklin's autobiography. The result is an easy-to-read, easy-to-browse book, filled with memorable "family anecdotes" from one of our Founding Fathers.