Eric Weiner’s new book (Ben & Me) comes out this month, and Politics and Prose is hosting some opening ceremonies on June 12th. I enjoy Eric’s work, and find this book to be a wonderful introduction to Franklin and a thoughtful exploration of his life, locations and lessons by a very companionable writer. Reflections on …
At long last, I have read Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America by Ralph Frasca (University of Missouri Press, 2006). The author covers his topic well: the various people Franklin worked with in the course of repeated attempts to start subordinate businesses around North America. The importance of bookkeeping, especially keeping track …
More a personal capturing of a tumultuous quarter-year than a Franklin tribute, my latest window is nonetheless founded on Franklin’s nostalgia for France and his friends there.
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!
There’s plenty to talk about, so it’s time to start a list.
Some of the better articles on Franklin’s armonica:
The Washington Post today published an exclusive report surveying the works of art in the U. S. Capitol showing slaveholders and supporters of the Confederacy as well as enslaved people. It begs the wearying search for the location of the new line, to be drawn somewhere between the Robert E. Lee statue erected in a …
Keep Thy Shop, a stained glass panel installed in my library/office October 2022 in honor of Benjamin Franklin’s career as a printer. Images edited and screen printed from J. G. Chapman’s engravings for Rev. H. Hastings Weld’s 1849 edition of BF’s Autobiography, texts from Poor Richard, including “Keep thy Shop, & thy Shop will keep …
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 …
