proud FOREWORD If you would not be forgotten As soon as you are dead and rotten Either write things worth reading Or do things worth writing Benjamin Franklin RANKLIN DID LOTS OF THINGS WORTH WRITING He built a business in Philadelphia his adopted home town that furnished a good living for his family and good jobs to the people who worked for him He published a newspaper the Pennsylvania Gazette which informed its many readers of the important events of their day He invented the lightning rod which kept people safe from lightning strikes and the Franklin stove which kept them warm during the winter He helped establish a library allowing people who couldn't afford books to borrow them and a college which provided education education to young people He served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence He arranged the alliance with France that led to the American victory in the Revolutionary War He took the leading part in negotiating the peace treaty that ended the war And he offered sage advice in the conven tion that produced the American Constitution But it was the things Franklin wrote that have made him the best loved of the Founding Fathers Franklin wrote letters that contain words of wisdom essays and newspaper articles that showed his insight into the human character and satires and spoofs that poked fun at the pretensions of the
Prize His most famous literary work was Poor Richard's Almanack Almanacs were small books that included calendars and contained contained useful information about the seasons the weather the best times for planting crops and harvesting them the most promising cures for illness in humans and animals and many other topics of interest to their readers Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack did all this and gave a bonus the jokes Franklin told and the sound advice he framed in good humor Franklin's humor and his advice were a big hit in his lifetime His almanac was a best seller And the advice lives on as sound advice usually does The humor holds up well too which is less common Fish and visitors stink in 3 days Franklin wrote Anyone who has kept fish or visitors too long knows just what he was talking about There's one other thing that makes Franklin's writing worth reading He wrote in a simple straightforward style He could remember his life when he was young and loved to read anything anything he could lay his hands on He wrote in a way that young people people like himself as a boy could understand They could understand his words at the time he wrote them and they can understand them now All of which guarantees that though he has long been dead and rotten he won't be soon forgotten H W BRANDS has been teaching American history to high school and college students for 35 years He has been writing about American history for almost that long And Benjamin Franklin is one of his favorite subjects His book The First American The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin was a finalist for the Pulitzer
SPEAKING INTRODUCTION THINK INNOCENTLY AND JUSTLY AND IF YOU SPEAK SPEAK ACCORDINGLY Benjamin Franklin In other words TRUST THE GOOD IN OTHER PEOPLE BE FAIR TO EVERYONE IN YOUR THINKING AND
live OF ALL THE AMERICANS WHO EVER LIVED Ben Franklin is one of the most interesting Even though he only went to school until he was 10 years old he kept reading and learning and eventually became famous as a scientist inventor statesman and writer of many wise words He seemed to enjoy just being alive and trying all kinds of new things He loved to swim play jokes on his friends do scientific experiments and come up with ideas for new projects He didn't mind moving to a new city and starting a new life In fact he lived in some of the most important cities in the world Boston Philadelphia London and Paris Ben thought hard about the best ways to live so that he could be a good person enjoy life and accomplish a lot every day He owned a printing company when he lived in Philadelphia and he wrote funny stories and clever sayings in newspapers in an annual almanac he published Sometimes Ben was just repeating a saying he liked that he had read or heard about how to live well and smartly but other times he came up with his very own wise words Many of the sayings Ben wrote or said are still quoted today Even things we have in our lives today came from ideas Ben had or projects he started like wood burning stoves libraries and hospitals Sometimes people call Ben the First American because he had so many of the important qualities we think of as American He believed people were equal no matter how much money they had or what their social status was And he believed in being resourceful He was sure that if you thought about problems or projects that needed to be done you could come up with ways to improve just about anything And that's a pretty wise way to
