<b>Read about the fascinating life of Benjamin Franklin in this beautifully illustrated version of his autobiography.</b><br /><br />American icon Benjamin Franklin is known for many things: he published the famous <i>Poor Richard's Almanack</i>, helped found the world-famous University of Pennsylvania, and was the first Postmaster General of the United States. His iconography is everywhere. His likeness adorns, among other things, the United States' hundred-dollar bill. Franklin was a wildly intriguing personality, as his autobiography makes plain. From his hoarding of his pay as a teenager to buy books to his askance at such habits as drinking beer, from his work as a printer to his experiments with electricity, this is the story of Franklin's life--told as only he could tell it--in the years before the American Revolution.<br /><br />Benjamin Franklin's writings represent a career of literary, scientific, and political efforts which extended nearly the entire eighteenth century and the birth of the United States. This heavily illustrated version of Franklin's autobiography includes his reflections on diverse questions such as philosophy and religion, social status, electricity, American national characteristics, war, and the status of women.<br /><br />This heavily illustrated classic book features an introduction by Walter Isaacson, one of <i>Time</i> magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, and sidebars from many historians who have written about this intriguing founding father. A classic in the American canon, Franklin's autobiography is a must-read for any serious student of American history.