Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. Simon and Schuster, 2003. Adult biography.This is probably one of the definitive biographies of Benjamin Franklin and his life and times.
It covers his family's history, his scientific, political, and work life and includes insights that most readers would not have gleaned from American history classes.
When Ken Burns recently premiered his PBS series on Ben Franklin, one of the experts shown was Walter Isaacson. I was so impressed that I picked up this title. It does not disappoint. Two of my very favorite tidbits include
"Of the first eighteen women who came to Massachusetts in 1628, for example, fourteen died within a year." p.13
"The more earthy and middle-class backwoodsmen still revered Franklin's Autobiography-it was the one book that Davy Crockett carried with him to his death at the Alamo"...p.479
Truly, we read to learn and Walter Isaacson does not disappoint!
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