In 1727, Franklin established the “Junto,” a club whose members had diverse occupations but shared a desire for “mutual improvement” by means of readings and lively discussions. He worked in a London printing shop for a time and then returned to Philadelphia and his position with Keimer.
After sailing to England, however, Franklin found that the governor failed to fulfill his pledge. When the governor of Pennsylvania offered to underwrite Franklin’s purchase of British printing equipment to start his own business, Franklin jumped at the opportunity. He secured employment at the printing house of Samuel Keimer and established himself in Philadelphia society. The brothers quarreled, and Benjamin escaped James’s “arbitrary” exercise of power by leaving for Philadelphia.Īt age seventeen, and with no money, Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia.
Initially impressed with the submission, James became angry when he learned Benjamin authored it. Using the pseudonym “Silence Dogood,” Benjamin submitted his own spirited essay to his brother’s paper. Captivated by the witty pieces appearing in a British publication called The Spectator, Benjamin was determined to emulate them. In the early 1720s, James launched a newspaper, The New England Courant. Young Benjamin preferred reading to candlemaking, so at the age of twelve, he became an apprentice to his brother James, who was a printer. Benjamin was the fifteenth of seventeen children in the Franklin family, and Josiah supported his large brood as a “chandler,” or candle and soap maker. He reflects on his genealogical research, noting that his father, Josiah Franklin, left England to settle in colonial Boston in the 1680s. Franklin begins his Autobiography with a letter to his son, William. Franklin never completed what he considered his memoir, but it is, nevertheless, crowded with events, inventions, and his tireless efforts to study morality, philosophy, politics, science, and literature. The work comprises four sections, reflecting the four different periods during which he wrote it, spanning his life as a youth to his time in the Pennsylvania Assembly in the late 1750s. It was published in various languages and versions beginning in 1791, but the complete Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, including Franklin’s final revisions, did not appear until 1868.
Benjamin Franklin began writing his Autobiography in 1771 and worked on it sporadically until shortly before his death in 1790.
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