One nice result of the celebrations of October 6, 2023 in Philadelphia was that Roy Goodman put me in touch with Richard Armandi, a long-time Franklinian who is particularly interested in the original locations of Franklin’s printing businesses. The suggestion from Franklin Court is that all of Franklin’s business was housed on that property, which …
Franklin first arrived in Philadelphia on October 6, 1723, and the 300th anniversary is easy to celebrate!
This book would be fine as a first book on Franklin, because the author starts from not knowing much about him, and touches meaningfully on every fundamental facet of Franklin that I can think of. He goes on to cover his topic very well. Most Franklin fans are not particularly interested in what happened to …
From my Goodreads review of Nick Bunker’s wonderful book: Without question, my Book of the Year, so far. One of the best books on Franklin, this takes many episodes one reads right past in his Autobiography (and standard biographies) and goes deeper.The definition of “young” is generous: Franklin is forty years old before this author …
Benjamin Franklin is often cited as a left-handed person. I believe this flows from his Petition of the Left Hand, an essay about the feelings of the left hand itself. Artist Dean Morrissey appears among those convinced, as he features Franklin with a quill in his left hand in this lovely modern portrait: One of …
The Closure Committee of the Friends of Franklin gathered in New Haven in November 2018 to donate the remaining funds of the Friends to the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in honor of Claude-Anne Lopez. Claude-Anne worked at the Papers for many years and started the Friends of Franklin as her “gift to the Papers.” We …
