Big Ben: celebrating Franklin's 300th

REVIEWS BY ALISON HOOD

January marks the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, proud patriot and one of our most venerated founding fathers. Infamous for his exploits with a thundercloud, kite and key, this master printer and endlessly curious "natural philosopher" (1800s parlance for "scientist") possessed a lively but disciplined mind, and a zeal for improving the quality of life for himself, his family and his beloved young America. Two new books, which are virtual literary feasts for Franklin fans, commemorate this tri-centennial event and showcase the enduring legacy of a man who once declared that he would rather live as a useful man than a rich one.

All about Benjamin

Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, edited by Page Talbott, is a grand volume, a glorious tribute to a man to whom America owes much. Talbott, chief curator of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary traveling exhibition (to tour across America, eventually arriving—like the man—in Paris), has compiled a wonderful collection of informative essays and fascinating images, a worthy literary companion to the exhibit in her charge.

Every aspect of Benjamin Franklin's extraordinary life is explored in 10 probing and beautiful essays, rich with their contributors' fine historical and social perspective. The text is enhanced with nearly 300 photos and reproductions of artifacts and art (many of which have never before been on public display) from Franklin's times, his home and his printing press. Memorably moving is a photograph of the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, which bears evidence of Franklin's legendary edits.

The contributors, all prominent scholars (two of them currently work with the Library Company of Philadelphia, the literary lending institution founded by Franklin), thoughtfully and realistically examine the daily life, travails, business activities and public and private exploits of this often wily, but virtuous man. Especially intriguing are the writings on Franklin's domestic life, his sojourn as a diplomat in France, and one essayist's ruminations on him as slave owner and dubious abolitionist. Though Franklin is viewed by some historians as a "reluctant revolutionary" who sought to avoid colonial conflict with Britain, this book reveals the admirable, but not always successful, pragmatic efforts consistently applied by Franklin to his endeavors, and poses the idea that his "vision remains unfulfilled, itself a challenge to Americans who still search for a better world."


Franklin in business

Blaine McCormick's clever book, Ben Franklin: America's Original Entrepreneur, entices the entrepreneurial muse by mining the good doctor's autobiography for the business lessons it contains. McCormick, a Franklin scholar and an associate dean at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business, has shaped a unique adaptation of the original work, revising its often abstruse language and syntax, and reorganizing the narrative into a three-part chronology that traces the beginnings, development and maturation of this successful 18th-century entrepreneur. The result is a solid business primer and intriguing portrait of America's foremost businessman, statesman, scientist, inventor and diplomat.

Franklin's life story, full of common sense, creative genius and psychological insight, has been distilled into palatable chapters, embellished with McCormick's trenchant analysis of Franklin's business acumen and peppered with apt quotes from his incomparable Poor Richard's Almanac. McCormick also includes informational tidbits about current business leaders and practices that relate to the lesson at hand: a young Franklin, motivated primarily by thrift, extols vegetarianism. Is it any wonder that Corn Flakes inventor W.K. Kellogg and Apple Computer maven Steve Jobs would follow suit?

McCormick views Franklin as the "founding father of American business," and notes that the great man clearly intended, as proven by a letter written shortly before his death, that his autobiography "will be of more Use to young Readers; as exemplifying the Effect of prudent and imprudent Conduct in the Commencement of a Life of Business." The models are many and all are useful in today's business vernacular, whether they involve a moral lesson, like the one learned after a youthful indiscretion involving minor theft, or a strategic maneuver, as when Franklin gains community cooperation for public projects by using the power of advertisements and contracts (both, of course, printed for profit by Franklin's own press).

This book's streamlined approach holds much for history and business buffs and, in accordance with McCormick's dearest wish, may sufficiently pique readers' interest to "return to Franklin's original text to study it with greater appreciation."


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