BENJAMIN FRANKLIN by Robin McKown [Illustration: Publisher logo] G. P. Putnam’s Sons New York To Rosalie Quine Third Impression © 1963 by Robin McKown All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-9688 Manufactured in the United States of America Published simultaneously in the Dominion of Canada by Longmans Canada Limited, Toronto 10216 CONTENTS 1. A Boyhood in Boston 9 2. A Young Man on His Own 18 3. The Birth of Poor Richard 28 4. The Civic-Minded Citizen 38 5. The Thunder Giant 49 6. A Brief Military Career 61 7. The Battle with the Penns 73 8. The White Christian Savages 84 9. The Stamp Act 91 10. Friendships in England 100 11. The Terrible Hutchinson Letters 111 12. Beginning of a Long War 123 13. The Splendid Word Independence 132 14. France Falls in Love with an American 143 15. America’s First Ambassador 155 16. A Glorious Old Age 165 17. The Closing Years 177 _Suggested Reading_ 188 _Index_ 189 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1 A BOYHOOD IN BOSTON The Franklins of Boston were poor, numerous, lively and intelligent. There were seventeen children in all, seven by their father’s first wife, who had died after Josiah Franklin brought her from England to America; and ten by his second wife, Abiah, Benjamin’s mother. Benjamin, born on January 6 (January 17, new style), 1706, was the youngest son, though he had two younger sisters, Jane, who was always his favorite, and Lydia.