Benjamin Franklin | “a Life written by my self may be useful to the rising Generation”

Benjamin Franklin

Autograph letter signed ("BFranklin") to Dr. Edward Bancroft ("Dear Sir"), 2 pages (238 x 188 mm) on a single leaf of laid paper (unwatermarked), Philadelphia, 25 November 1786, discussing his plans for an autobiography and the future of the nascent United States; trace of album mount at left edge. Half green morocco folding-case, red morocco labels.

An exceptional letter to Edward Bancroft—friend, physician, secretary to the American legation in Paris (and double-agent for England)—revealing the genesis of “the most widely read of all American autobiographies” (Grolier/American 21).

Benjamin Franklin's autobiography has been said to “hold the essence of the American way of life,” and it was a text that Franklin long labored over. He completed the manuscript for the early years of his life (though 1731, when he was twenty-five) in 1771, but his many other interests and the American Revolution conspired to prevent him from taking the story further. A request from publisher Charles Dilly for a new uniform edition of Franklin's works, however, caused the polymath to consider again taking up his autobiography.

Edward Bancroft had written to Franklin on 5 September 1786, reporting that Franklin’s “Philosophical Works are out of Print in this Country, and so is the Political Volume Published by Mr. B. Vaughan.” In light of this, Bancroft continued, “Mr. Dilly and one or two other Eminent Booksellers have therefore determined on Printing a new Elegant Edition of every thing of yours both Philosophical and Political which has yet appear’d or which can be procured in time; the Work being already in part sent to the Press. … To this Edition it is intended to fix an Account of the Author written by one of the Writers of the Biographia Brittanica, who I am told will accord with the Wishes of your Friends at least so far as the Writers Knowledge of Facts may enable him to be accurate and do you justice. … Having some reason to believe that among the Papers which you had left in America during the late War, as well as among those which you carried from Europe, there might be some that you would willingly see added to the intended Edition of your Works, I determined to give you this account of what was in Agitation and advised the Editors (particularly Mr. Dilly) to keep the impression unfinished until I could hear from you respecting it, which they have promised to do. If therefore you should have any thing to add to the materials before mentioned, I could wish that you or your Grandson, would take the trouble [of] sending it to me here, and if he should know and think proper to add any facts that might enable me to Correct or improve the Proposed Biographical part, I shall receive them with thanks and endeavour to make a becoming use of them.”

Franklin quickly responded in the present letter, and while clearly flattered by the prospect of a new collected edition of his writings, he also expresses the desire that his earlier publishers be treated fairly. He further makes clear that the intended biographical notice of himself will almost certainly be unsatisfactory, but that he has been convinced by friends to write the story of his own life:

“I received your kind Letter of Sept. 5. informing me of the Intention Mr. Dilly has of printing a new Edition of my Writings, and of his Desire that I would furnish him with such Additions as I may think proper. At present all my Papers and Manuscripts are so mixt with other things by the Confusions occasioned in sudden and various Removals during the late Troubles, that I can hardly find any thing. But having nearly finished an Addition to my House, which will afford me Room to put all in Order, I hope soon to be able to comply with such a Request; But I hope Mr. Dilly will have a good Understanding in the Affair, with Henry and Johnson, who having risqu’d the former Impressions may suppose they thereby acquir’d some Right in the Copy. As to the Life propos’d to be written, if it be by the same hand who furnish’d a Sketch to Dr. Lettsom, which he sent me, I am afraid it will be found too full of Errors for either you or me to correct: And having been persuaded by my Friends Messrs Benja Vaughan, M. Le Veillard, Mr. James of this Place, and some others, that such a Life written by my self may be useful to the rising Generation, I have made some Progress in it, and hope to finish it this Winter. So I cannot but wish that Project of Mr Dilly’s Biographer may be laid aside. I am nevertheless thankful to you for your Friendly Offer to correcting it.”

Unfortunately, Franklin's projection of a completion date for his memoir was far too optimistic. His 1771 manuscript first appeared in Paris in 1791 in an unauthorized French translation that was wedded to a translation of Wilmer's Memoirs of Franklin for the period after 1731 (see lot 145). The English text first appeared in 1793, and although its author never formally completed it, Franklin's Autobiography has indeed been very useful to later generations.

Franklin was very familiar with all of the publishers that he mentions here. David Henry and Joseph Johnson had both previously published volumes by Franklin (see lots 59, 120), and in 1787, Dilly did issue the new edition of Franklin's Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers, which Franklin alludes to in this letter (see lot 137). (Dilly was later to publish the first edition of James Boswell's Life of Johnson.)

After informing Franklin of “what was in Agitation” regarding the pending new edition of his works, Bancroft admitted “I have very little to say to you in the way of News.” Still, he alludes to the Eden Treaty, an anticipated commercial agreement between Britain and France, and observes that “There does not appear the smallest probability of any Commercial Treaty between this Country and the United States.”

Franklin picks up this theme in the closing paragraph of his response, predicting a bright future for the youthful United States, despite some festering factionalist disputes, including the recently quelled Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts, and hinting at a coming federal constitution: “As to Public Affairs, it is long since I gave over all Expentations of a Commercial Treaty between us and Britain; and I think we can do as well or better without one than she can. Our Harvests are plenty, our Produce fetches a high Price in hard Money and there is in every Part of our Country incontestible Marks of public Felicity. We discover indeed some Errors in our general and particular Constitutions; which is no wonder they should have, the time in which they were formed being considered. But those we shall mend. The little Disorders you have heard of in some of the States, rais’d by a few wrong Heads are subsiding, and will probably soon be extinguis’d. My best Wishes and those of my Family attend you. We shall be happy to see you here when it suits you to visit us: being with sincere and great Esteem my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately. …”

REFERENCES

Franklin’s letter to Bancroft, as well as the Bancroft letter to which it is an answer, both remain unpublished, but they will be included in a forthcoming volume of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin; in the meantime, the texts, without editorial apparatus, are available at franklinpapers.org.

PROVENANCE

Christie’s New York, 28 November 1983, lot 311 (undesignated consignor) — James S. Copley (Sotheby’s New York, 13 December 2011, lot 259)