Few men have more claims to greatness than Benjamin Franklin. He was in his long lifetime, writer, editor and publisher, scientist and inventor, propagandist for the cause of the American colonies, statesman, diplomat. He was a wit and a humorist, a loyal friend and a good family man. From his birth in Boston as the son of a poor candlemaker to his election by Congress as America’s first ambassador to France and his subsequent return to the United States, the author traces the fascinating development of an impetuous and saucy youth who became a beloved man both on his native soil and throughout the world. Transcriber’s Notes --Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged. --Collected series, volume, and author information at the end of the e-text. --Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication. --In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.) End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Benjamin Franklin, by Robin McKown