Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin was the son of Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Benjamin was the 15th child of 17, and the 10th son. The Franklin family was of modest circumstances, like most other New Englanders were at that time. Although his father taught him to read during his early childhood, Franklin's formal education consisted of a brief period of formal tutoring and years of study at the Boston Grammar School (Fish 13). After working for two years with his father, Franklin was apprenticed in 1721 to his older brother, James Franklin. As editor of The New England Courant, a newspaper notable for its criticism of civil and religious leaders, James encouraged Franklin in his self-education, which consisted of reading American, British, and West European newspapers, as well as classical and contemporary works (Reid 27). James published Frank

By 1726 Franklin had saved enough money from printing jobs to return to Philadelphia. In 1728, Franklin established a printing shop with Hugh Meredith. Franklin produced a paper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Gazette was the first paper to have cartoons, jokes, weather, and an edition with an editorial page (Reid 3). In 1730 Franklin married Deborah Read, an illiterate woman. Together they raised, William Franklin, who later became Royal Governor of New Jersey. Franklin and Deborah also had a son, who died at the age of four, and a daughter, Sarah (Brandenburg 11).

Franklin's most famous work, his Autobiography, has played a significant role in American literary history. Published after his death, this pioneering self-help book covers the first fifty years of his life, describing his successes in science, business, social reform, and writing. According to Crane, Franklin's Autobiography, which has been translated into almost every language and read by millions, is as instructive now as ever (59).

As the American Revolution progressed, Franklin wrote another highly important work titled the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union." It, like the "Plan of Union," contained many ideas, such as representation by population, ratification by state legislature, and an orderly process of amendment, which became incorporated into the Constitution of the United States (Crane 52). At the Constitution Convention of 1787, the elderly Franklin "played his favorite role of conciliator and compromiser," his final public service to the nation he loved (Crane 54).

lin's earliest essays, which were work under the pseudonym "Silence Dogwood" (Fish 20). The essays were funny and sometimes made fun of Boston authorit

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