Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

BIGELOW, John [Benjamin Franklin].

Item Number: 138054

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1868.

First edition of Franklin’s autobiography. Octavo, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine, frontispiece of Franklin, tissue guard. In near fine condition, bookplate to the front pastedown. Uncommon in this condition.

“This is not only the first appearance of the autobiography from Franklin’s own copy, but also the first publication in English of the four parts, and the first publication of the very important ‘outline’ autobiography. It is therefore the first edition of the autobiography” (Ford 423). The original manuscript had been left by Franklin to his grandson and literary executor Temple Franklin and found its way to the family of Louis-Guillaume Le Veillard, “where it remained until sold in 1867 to Bigelow, United States Minister to France… When Bigelow came to examine his purchase, he was astonished to find that what people had been reading for years as the authentic Life of Benjamin Franklin by Himself, was only a garbled and incomplete version of the real autobiography. Temple Franklin had taken unwarranted liberties with the original. In 1868, therefore, Bigelow published the standard edition of Franklin’s Autobiography. It corrected errors in the previous editions and was the first English edition to contain the short fourth part, comprising the last few pages of the manuscript, written during the last year of Franklin’s life… The life of Benjamin Franklin is of importance to every American… As far as American literature is concerned, Franklin has no contemporaries” (Berges, Introduction, Autobiography, 88-92).