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Show Book on Franklin Restored Him o HisJSrand Dimensions. vi iVd Him as One of Thorn and Tells What Ho Reallv "HVI Te,P,e Who Have r i NiM,w,UllIon. "y Uld- SM Thought and Felt." W-NV- - nv . . . . w ' N x xx S I - S - x, , - j I Althangh Franklin is' best Known for his prose writings, for ability as a "maker and sharpener of adages," such as those which he put in his "Poor Richard's Almanac," the fact is mat his writing career started w"h a poem! It was an "Elegy on My Sister Franklin" which, van Doren says, was "only recently re-cently discovered and is now first mentioned in a Franklin biography. biog-raphy. The precise date of the elegy JS stjU uncertain, as is the name of the sister-in-law whose death called it forth ..." . The text of the elegy, as given in Van Doren's book, follows: Warm from my Breast surcharged with Grief & Woe flowmelanQhly Straln3 spontaneous Flow from a fav'rite Sister's sad Decease De-cease Flow from the worthiest of the female Race . . . My Friend much"loved Sister lO my We in this World on nothing may depend: f.?r soon as we esteem ourselves possest ot every needful Thing to make us blest home Friend's Demise (like hers we now lament) Casual Mischance, or tragical Event Like an lntrudent Guest will intervene rustrate our Hopes and mar our blissful Scene. How weak I how vain! how void all mundane Joys A Medley fraught with Nonsense, Shew and Noise O what is Life which we so high esteem A Bubble, Vapous, Shadow. Fleeting Dream From sordid Dust we sprang & surely must Or soon or late return to native Dust What mortal Man even in his best Estate All Vanity, Pride, Folly and Deceit . . . Crowns have their Thorns and Opulence its Bane And all our Pleasures their Alloy of Pain All the Vicissitudes of Life declare Uncertainty alone Is certain here . . . No sublunary Blessings long endure And from Death's Clutches nought can us ensure Wh9 o'er all Flesh maintains a sovereign Sway And Millions fall his Victims every Day Nor Worth. Wit, Beauty, Wealth or Power can free From rigid Fate's immutable Decree . . . Else might this worthy Saint whose wayward way-ward Fate We now deplore have claimed a longer Date Of circling Years her Kin to serve and bless Enjoy her Friends and Life's good Things possess ... And tho' I humbly trust our Friend deceas'd Is wafted to the Saints eternal Rest Yet her sad Exit maugre my Resolves In Woe's profound Abyss my soul involves in-volves With Sighs & Groans my lab'ring Bosom swells And down my cheeks Grief's mournful Stream impels May Heaven forgive me If I ought offend Whilst thus I mourn my dear departed Friend Sure Heaven forbids not for our Friends to mourn Nor to bedew with Tears their peaceful Urn fe SCOTT WATSON t, .vf3r's cvU"bratum :',i,0 iinnivorsavy oC 00 -i;i Franklin's a tl 'J have a j'sroator novvo to his lV1Unv- , .sthan over before. a v i- this true if they ehs i a biography of ipir ,i rvut'-V-lcl '.. it would more zas,f:ckr to it as TllK wTv. A great many ,.ve been written ree x covering every l0n( ;-lom:and remark-lhd remark-lhd or ami dealing with iile v.se of this-"most bin American." But for the -j:ne in three-quar-the .ritury a biographer : '.;aken to bring tho 3 life, with all the 'v details, into a sin- -',::ve long enough to :.;e. x -.rapher who has ;is Carl Van Doren ; SCO-page volume, : recently by the Vik-yof Vik-yof New York, is un-;S un-;S the "last word," i 'full-length portrait ;r;3vvho was born 2o5 SI --on January 17, I i outlines of Frank- $ : -:;:t is a familiar one :-e::car.s. They know ' i in Boston, his work gjirr-entice printer in the 3rcj brcther. Jair.es, and i : y a publisher, at the i", ;hea James incurred J'iirtre of the authorities . Sea had the task of '. .:. :'.e New England Cou- l" familiar with the j i hi- quarrel with his hf gsxg to Phiiadel-j Phiiadel-j :;:e to walk down the y i i a huse ro'.l of bread 'jjar-n and to be lau;hed too Tetorah Read who :LT.e has wife. Familiar. n -.etiie of his becoming fiS'2the printing oillee of mm ii-T.er, his partnership f; j.'e:ed;-h in publishing ha FRANKLIN IN LONDON From a portrait painted by David Martin in London in 17G7 and now owned by the lYunsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. I also interested in politics and public nilairs that he served as c'.erk of Uie Pennsylvania assembly assem-bly and afterwards as a member of it; that he established the postal post-al system in this country; that he first planted the idea of a union of the colonies with his famous "Join or Die" snake cartoon; that he was indispensable to General Gen-eral Braidock in securing the waggoners necessary for hauling that leader's supplies on his disastrous dis-astrous expedition; that lie went to England to represent the colonics col-onics in the dispute over the Stamp Act and thus started upon the career as a diplomat which was to bring him his greatest fame. And these are only a few of the activities of the "many-sided Frar.klm" which have been made f .f " ' f A- ! ' ,' ' ; 1 f U - ' ' i 1 ; t a - - ; Ihe licl .1th i lec - . .j Tiei :.-'.. : hei eks ' . i thi am . . -a ; ' - . : i ; . . " 1 j '4 (' I - - , 1 a ,"'( ''' ' - ji rt' ' ' i j - j ' . ; i vet ' ', ' 1 ing f, ''',' ust , ' , 1 ole ' ' ' , ' i i v in. ' S t j a book. He seldom wrote a line without some characteristic touch of wit and grace. Most of these materials need no rewriting to make them match the unfinished story they continue." Although the biographer thus makes his task sound simple, the fact is that it was a monumental one. More than 10 years have elapsed between the time he started this biography and its completion. The very abundance of the new material which his research re-search unearthed added to his difficulties, since it led to the temptation to let his book run beyond be-yond a readable length. However, Howev-er, the completed biography of more than 800 pages, "full as it is, is a biography cut with hard labour to the bone." Not the least of the interest and value of the book is the new material ma-terial which the biographer mentions. men-tions. Concerning it, he says in the preface: "Here first in any Franklin biography bi-ography appear (in part) his 'elegy,' 'el-egy,' recently discovered and apparently ap-parently his earliest writing that has survived; information about James Franklin's New England Courant based on the file kept, almost certainly, by Benjamin Franklin; an analysis of the hundreds hun-dreds of sayings of Poor Richard which Franklin left out of 'The Way to Wealth,' thereby much narrowing his reputation as a maker and sharpener of adages; various details of his business, domestic life, and personal expenditures ex-penditures taken from manuscript manu-script account books and advertisements adver-tisements in the Pennsylvania ; Gazette; a more exact discussion than has thitherto been printed of his surreptitious writings and of his 'Reflections on Courtship and Marriage'; a critical exam-nation exam-nation of the kite-flying episode; he narrative of Franklin s first diplomatic mission to the chiefs of the Ohio Indians at Carlisle, me lifelong story of his affectionate affection-ate friendship with Catherine Ray with unpublished letters from her; his campaign as a sol-known sol-known in full only to read, era of a single monograph his record in Pennsylvania politics shown in the executive and wislatTve journals of the prov-fe prov-fe - the insurance company's de-ince, de-ince, i" house in Phila- Sriff an unpublished manu-d manu-d ? t in which he outlined his SCF1P mme of opposition to the programme ot OPP megt StamI,th Baron Munchausen and g d ? chronicler; a circum-Raspe circum-Raspe his emu d stantial nXm which Frank-Ohio Frank-Ohio company ttom lin hoped to ' make int. land speculator his ance with James ed in fabl6l lost sight of untU 1936; 1770 but lost versions of a comparison of tw Frjnk Weddeerbap in?erby the British lin, one as Pr as remem- government ana . ber6d ,bd reSd of his activities neglected recu pennSylvania as chairman of me unpub. rier to ffial. Schuyler lished le"" .ng the mission to written d""nagccurate report of Canada: an acCeCU With General the conference rom the H0W6( I'The amazing melodrama minutes, the ai surr0Und-theBCififp"is;newtrans-ed Franklm ir Passy baga- lationS ,- ten by him, so, far as tees' lon5 in French." is known, oniy FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA From a portrait by Kobert Feke (?) or John Greenwood (?), painted probably about 1748 and now owned by the Fogg Art Museum Mu-seum of Harvard university. "These are perhaps the earliest surviving words of Franklin, written when he had not yet finally final-ly decided between poetry and prose," says his biographer. After reading young Ben's first literary effort (it was probably written when he was 17 or 18 years old), one can't help being grateful that he decided in favor of prose! In explaining why he has gone into such detail in this biography, Mr. Van Doren says it is because be-cause "Franklin led a detailed life which in a general narrative loses colour and savour. But the chief aim of the book has been to restore to Franklin, so often remembered re-membered piecemeal in this or that of his diverse aspects, his magnificent central unity as a great and wise man moving through great and troubling events. No effort has been made to cut his nature to fit any simple scheme of what a good man ought to be. "Here as truly as it has been possible' to find out, is what Franklin did, said, thought, and felt Perhaps these things may help to rescue him from the dry, nrim people who have claimed him as one of them. They praise his thrift. But he himself admitted ad-mitted that he could never learn frugality, and he practiced it no longer than his poverty forced him to. They praise his prudence. But at seventy he became a leader lead-er of a revolution and throughout his life he ran bold risks. They praise him for being a plain man. Hardly another man of affairs has ever been more devoted than Franklin to the pleasant graces. "The dry, prim people seem to rpoard him as a treasure shut up ina savings bank to which they have the lawful key I herewith "ive him back, in his grand dimensions, di-mensions, to his nation and the world." a.. FRANKLi: ) . 'Nrtwit painted in Fran, - DWned by the New York Pi ;Y ! vania Gazette and his ZhFT as a printer and '!-.h'ch enabled him to ,9jvm that business at the .antime his career as 'perL had begun in his I -S's Almanac," ' his fame through- '7es- and in his forma-7! forma-7! ' a cl"b in which . ' , le"ws discussed all Hnc osophical ques-3 ques-3 t f'ce.next attracted him 'a.m'liar of all the sto-. sto-. "'mis that which tells . 'flthl1? yden jars' For 3 thi famous incident of s handkerchief, !, "!.and the charge of . '-) thi", ran dpwn the .( l"e key tied on the i -didri.tC?.,irse' Benjamin ' 'Jthl j discover" elec-' elec-' W amatizcd 't. and ri. nogrophs on his 01 'his American colo- 3 '3ns know that he was v) IN PARIS . m 1783 ce by Joscph-Slfrede Dupless.s in ublic Library. familiar to his felloerl"" mainly through his A . raphy," which he e&a" c j Van :771. But according to Carl Doren, just because biog best known ro hlfitte known. ranhv " he is too little rv man and did not reach n memhrtablerevyoTtonaSry sLtes-prophet, sLtes-prophet, re3" diplomatt, man, cosmopolitan 1 f He scientist, wjt, moralist jag the never found t'fntended. history of himself as But the materials wh ich d jn have used still exist, 1ane-journals,. 1ane-journals,. letters and m ous writings througn u scripts and his cpu collected works. himseif So Mr. Van Doren ma. to the task of drawing grranging terials tSethethin" like the or-them or-them "in .smchveg given them, der he might have e for Nor are they mere raw |