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Audiobook edition · 8 h 10 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a tired young printer with bread under his arms teach you about building a useful life?
Benjamin Franklin writes to his son William to explain how a poor boy from Boston finds prosperity and purpose. His unfinished autobiography follows him from apprenticeship with his brother James to the streets of Philadelphia, where he arrives dirty, tired and almost out of money.
As Franklin builds his printing business, he studies the habits that help or hinder a life. Hard work, frugality, reading and friendship become practical tools. His lively, often funny account moves from a private plan for moral perfection to public projects: a library, a fire company and a hospital.
What you’ll discover
- An arrival to remember Walk through Philadelphia with a hungry young Franklin carrying bread and looking for a beginning.
- The work behind success Follow a printer who treats honest dealing and steady effort as tools for building prosperity.
- A revealing personal experiment Explore Franklin's attempt to practise one virtue each week in pursuit of a faultless life.
- Private success, public purpose See how a thriving business leads Franklin toward projects that serve the people of Philadelphia.
- Curiosity beyond the printing house Join Franklin as electrical instruments open a field of study to explore with friends.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like true stories of self-made lives, practical advice on habits and money, or a witty storyteller who smiles at his own mistakes.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A candle maker's son starts with family
- Reading and copying turn a boy into a writer
- A quarrel with his brother sends him running
- Three rolls of bread begin a new life
- London teaches costly lessons about friends
- Work, clubs and a library build a printer's credit
- A little book tracks thirteen virtues
- Public projects begin with small, practical steps
- War and union test him on a larger stage
- Lightning, London and the lessons that last
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin · 1791
A runaway printer's apprentice reaches Philadelphia with three rolls of bread and sets out to improve his character.
Challenging2–5 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What does a runaway printer's apprentice, seventeen years old and almost penniless, have to teach you about building a good life? Benjamin Franklin walks up Market Street in Philadelphia with three rolls of bread, two under his arms and one in his mouth.
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 45 min3 h 45 min fast, 5 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 67,500 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1791by Benjamin Franklin
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A candle maker's son starts with family
Franklin writes his opening pages from a country house in England in 1771. He addresses his son and says he wants to share the means by which he rose from poverty and obscurity. He would live the same life again, if he could fix a few faults, as an author fixes a second edition.
His father Josiah, a dyer, sails to New England around 1682 to worship freely. In Boston he makes candles and soap for a household of seventeen children. Young Benjamin hates the trade and longs for the sea. One night he moves a builder's pile of stones to make a fishing wharf. His father makes him see that nothing is useful unless it is honest.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1791
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin.
Franklin, B. (2026). Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin (Original work published 1791)
Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin.
@book{franklin2026autobiography,
author = {Franklin, Benjamin},
title = {Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin},
note = {First published 1791}
}
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What is the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin about?
It tells how Franklin rose from a Boston candle maker's son to a printer, writer, scientist and public servant. It covers his youth, his London years, his habit-building plan, his civic projects and the political quarrels of colonial Pennsylvania.
What are Franklin's thirteen virtues?
They are temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility. He practiced one each week and marked his faults in a small book, so that good habits could replace bad ones.
Did Franklin finish the Autobiography?
He wrote it in several stretches between 1771 and 1789, and it stops in the middle of his London business in the late 1750s. The pages after that are letters and short pieces, such as The Way to Wealth and The Whistle.
The author
Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 · American polymath and statesman
Benjamin Franklin was an American printer, scientist, inventor, diplomat, and founding father. His Autobiography, which traces his rise from runaway apprentice to celebrated statesman, remains one of the most engaging self-portraits in all of American literature.
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