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Tom Butler-Bowdon

self-help classics

Autobiography
(1790)
Benjamin Franklin


Benjamin Franklin is best known as an historical figure, for his role in the American Revolution and experiments with electricity. In the history books he looms large as co-drafter of the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, but the Autobiography has been lauded as 'The first great book written in America' (Richard E Amacher: 1962) It helped to create the modern literary form of the autobiography, and has been a bestseller for two centuries, despite the fact that it was never finished or properly edited.

Franklin's attitude to written work is summed up in one of his own aphorisms:

'If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.'

The Autobiography is not a chronicle of Franklin's brilliance; the idea was to show how a person's life and character could become a noble one through constant self-assessment. As a scientist, Franklin wrote it almost as if it is was a report on the failures and successes of experiments in living. At no point does he claim any special mastery over how to live life, but he was committed to finding a formula that could assure a person of some success.

Franklin never tries to show superiority; he speaks directly to the reader and laces it all with subtle humour, giving it the intimate feel of a fireside chat. The first part of the book details experiences with family, friends, bosses and work mates, in addition to travels and attempts to start new businesses, all of which will strike chords with today's reader.

Creating the best possible self

Franklin believed that virtue was worth it for its own sake, whether or not it was to the glory of God. His background was Puritan, and culturally, he remained one, self-examining and self-improving. In his famous The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber names Franklin as a key exponent of this ethic. Franklin was a printer by trade, and believed that character was the result of correcting the 'errata' (errors) that prevent us from attaining perfection. Life is not something we must suffer through, but is ripe for endless tinkering.

Franklin is seminal in the self-help literature because he disregarded any religious conception that we were naturally bad or good people, rather blank slates designed for success. Franklin scholar Ormond Seavey (OUP: 1993) has noted that 'It was always natural for Franklin to be trying on a fresh identity, as if he were putting on new clothes'. He was truly modern in seeing that the individual was not a fixed proposition at all, but self-creating. His significant influence on later self-help writers includes Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey and Anthony Robbins.

Franklin's law of constant self-improvement

Franklin wrote the Autobiography as an old man, considered a great man. He had arrived in Philadelphia from Boston with a couple of shillings and three bread rolls, two of which, characteristically, he gave to a woman in need. Instinctively knowing that mastery of words would be his ticket out of mediocrity, he would persuade a friend working at a booksellers to 'lend' him books overnight, devouring them between finishing his day's work and starting another. Franklin would have agreed with the phrase 'leaders are readers'; read at least a dozen non-fiction books a year and your life will be immeasurably enriched and improved.

But as a young man, Franklin never dreamed of becoming an independence leader or ambassador to France. The reader of his life should not dwell on his actual accomplishments - they are less important than the efforts described to achieve self-mastery. Franklin's message is timeless: greatness is not for the few, but the duty of all of us. We protest that we are not that special, that we don't have the talent or the drive, but Franklin knew that an ethic of constant self-improvement is the yeast that makes an individual rise.

Final word

Franklin's prescriptions (see below) have not been without criticism. Thoreau believed that they made for a dreary race against time to amount wealth, never stopping to enjoy nature or the moment. Franklin has also been dubbed 'the first apostle of frugality and the patron saint of savings accounts'. This comment was probably more directed to Franklin's collections of aphorisms on money and thrift, The Way to Wealth.

The man's life, however, does not fit the image of penny-pinching Puritanism, for it is obvious he lived with great panache. Franklin appreciated that the self-help ethic is not about earnest striving, simply the prospect of a fuller and more exciting life.

Benjamin's Table of Virtues (from The Art of Virtue)

  1. TEMPERANCE - Eat not to Dullness, Drink not to Elevation
  2. SILENCE - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
  3. ORDER - Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
  4. RESOLUTION - Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
  5. FRUGALITY - Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, Waste nothing.
  6. INDUSTRY - Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
  7. SINCERITY - Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.
  8. JUSTICE - Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
  9. MODERATION - Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
  10. CLEANLINESS - Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.
  11. TRANQUILITY - Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
  12. CHASTITY - Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation.
  13. HUMILITY - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing."



Benjamin Franklin

Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the son of a chandler and the youngest of seventeen children. His formal education lasted up until the age of ten. From age 12 to 17 he was an apprentice printer to his brother - who produced one of America's first newspapers - before settling in Philadelphia.

After a stint in England, he set up his own printing shop, which enabled him to publish some of his writings. By his late twenties he was publishing the highly successful Poor Richard's Almanacks, mixing practical information with aphorisms, many of which are still in use. By age 42, he was wealthy enough to retire but pursued civic projects and experiments with electricity, inventing the lightning rod.

Franklin's party leadership in the Pennsylvania Assembly led to involvement in negotiations between Britain and colonial America, and he served on a committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence. Made American ambassador to France at age 69, during a decade in that post he negotiated France's assistance for the US and a peace accord with Britain. He was selected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

When he died in 1790, Franklin was the most famous American in the world. The Autobiography was then published, but covered his life only up to 1758. It had been written in fits between 1771 and 1790.

Franklin has been called America's first entrepreneur. Apart from his other successes, he charted the Gulf Stream, designed a domestic heater, created a public library, originated a city fire department and served on a French committee looking into hypnotism.

Source: 50 Self-Help Classics: Your shortcut to the most important ideas on happiness and fulfilment by Tom Butler-Bowdon (London & Boston: Nicholas Brealey)
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© COPYRIGHT TOM BUTLER-BOWDON, 2023
​. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • 50 Classics Series
    • 50 Self-Help Classics >
      • James Allen - As A Man Thinketh
      • Dale Carnegie - How To Win Friends and Influence People
      • Stephen Covey - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
      • Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
      • Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography
      • Louise Hay - You Can Heal Your Life
      • Joseph Murphy - The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
      • Samuel Smiles - Self-Help
      • Teilhard de Chardin - The Phenomenon of Man
    • 50 Success Classics >
      • Claude M Bristol - The Magic of Believing
      • Jim Collins - Good To Great
      • Russell H Conwell - Acres of Diamonds
      • Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich
      • Catherine Ponder - The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity
      • David J Schwartz - The Magic of Thinking Big
      • Wallace Wattles - The Science of Getting Rich
    • 50 Spiritual Classics >
      • Carlos Castaneda - Journey to Ixtlan
      • Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
      • Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception
      • Carl Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections
      • Margery Kempe - The Book of Margery Kempe
      • CS Lewis - The Screwtape Letters
      • Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements
      • 50 More Spiritual Classics
    • 50 Psychology Classics >
      • Eric Berne - Games People Play
      • Isabel Briggs Myers - Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type
      • Louann Brizendine - The Female Brain
      • David D Burns - Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
      • Robert Cialdini - Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
      • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Creativity
      • Albert Ellis - A Guide To Rational Living
      • Milton Erickson - Teaching Tales
      • Erik Erikson - Young Man Luther
      • Hans Eysenck - Dimensions of Personality
      • Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of Dreams
      • Malcolm Gladwell - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
      • Carl Jung - The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
      • Alfred Kinsey - Sexuality In The Human Female
      • Abraham Maslow - Motivation and Personality
      • Stanley Milgram - Obedience To Authority
      • IP Pavlov - Conditioned Reflexes
      • Jean Piaget - The Language and Thought of the Child
      • Carl Rogers - On Becoming A Person
      • BF Skinner - Beyond Freedom & Dignity
    • 50 Prosperity Classics >
      • James Allen - The Path to Prosperity
      • Genevieve Behrend - Your Invisible Power
      • Richard Branson - Losing My Virginity
      • Warren Buffett - The Essays of Warren Buffett
      • Rhonda Byrne - The Secret
      • Andrew Carnegie - The Gospel of Wealth
      • Felix Dennis - How To Get Rich
      • Peter Drucker - Innovation and Entrepreneurship
      • Harv Eker - Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
      • Milton Friedman - Capitalism and Freedom
      • Michael E Gerber - The E-Myth Revisited
      • Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor
      • Esther & Jerry Hicks - Ask And It Is Given
      • Conrad Hilton - Be My Guest
      • Joe Karbo - The Lazy Man's Way To Riches
      • Catherine Ponder - Open Your Mind To Prosperity
      • Ayn Rand - Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
      • Donald Trump - The Art of the Deal
      • Max Weber - The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
      • Prosperity Principles
    • 50 Philosophy Classics >
      • Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex
      • Heraclitus - Fragments
      • Soren Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling
      • Thomas Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
      • Marshall McLuhan - The Medium is the Massage
      • John Stuart Mill - On Liberty
      • Montaigne - Essays
      • Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
      • Plato - The Republic
      • Karl Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery
      • John Rawls - A Theory of Justice
      • Jean-Paul Sartre - Being and Nothingness
      • Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan
      • Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations
    • 50 Politics Classics
    • 50 Economics Classics
    • 50 Business Classics
  • Capstone Classics
    • Think and Grow Rich
    • The Science of Getting Rich
    • The Art of War
    • The Prince
    • The Wealth of Nations
    • The Republic
    • The Tao Te Ching
    • Meditations
    • Beyond Good and Evil
    • Origin of Species
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