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J. A. LEO LEMAY. The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume One: Journalist, 1706-1730 and J. A. LEO LEMAY. The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume Two: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747

2007; Oxford University Press; Volume: 112; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/ahr.112.1.185

1937-5239

Albert H. Burstein,

American and British Literature Analysis

J. A. Leo Lemay's projected seven-volume biography of Benjamin Franklin is a labor of love balanced by thoughtful criticism. There is nothing like it. The first two volumes, treating the years 1706–1747, mine the primary sources and engage with old and new scholarship on Franklin and his environment. Although the freehand-drawn map of Boston inside the front cover of volume one is nearly impossible to make sense of, interior illustrations are abundant and inviting. The two volumes introduce the multifaceted Franklin: swimmer, vegetarian, songwriter, chess player, journalist, printer, Shaftesburian, Freemason, deist, mathematician, social critic, concerned citizen. Franklin adored John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), but also the long forgotten Logic; or the Art of Thinking (1685). Here and throughout, Lemay identifies previously unheeded influences on Franklin's wit and skepticism. Brother James's irreverent New-England Courant forms the centerpiece of volume one. Benjamin, as apprentice, stuck around for 111 issues before fleeing Boston in 1723. Lemay resurrects Nathaniel Gardner, occasional coeditor of the paper whose amusing sayings are appetizers for some of Ben's more pert aphorisms as Poor Richard. Gardner's various pseudonyms—take “Jethro Sham”—still evoke a chuckle, though the best of the Courant breed of writers has to be satirist John “Mundungus” Williams, who giddily tortured the English language. James Franklin shrewdly published his writers' opponents as well, fanning the flame of local controversy to sell more newspapers. The Courant was Ben's proving ground.