Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2005 Issue
The Curious Evolution of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography
The Private Life of Benjamin Franklin, London: Parsons, 1793
1. The first edition of the work in print (outside references made to it by Dr. Henry Stuber in a series of periodical articles on Franklin's life and a condensation of the work by Matthew Carey in another periodical) was of Part One only. This is M?oires de la vie priv? de Benjamin Franklin, ?its par lui-m?e, et addresses a son fils (Jacques Gibelin, translator. Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791). This is what has been called a "free" translation of a poor transcription of an unrevised version of Franklin's work (Lemay)i. So, it is not only incomplete, but also inaccurate. Two other early translations of Part One are in Swedish and German, both in 1792.
2. The next appearance of the work was as a 2-volume set, published by G. G. J. and J. Robinson in London, 1793 entitled Works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Consisting of His Life Written by Himself, together with Essays, Humorous, Moral, & Literary. Unfortunately this work was a re-translation from the French, supplemented by Dr. Stuber's account of Franklin's life. It was to become the "standard" for the work until 1868.
3. The second edition in English was another re-translation of Gibelin called The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin (Alexander Stevens, translator. London: J. Parsons, 1793). This single volume appeared some 6 months after the Robinson publication (2.).
4. Not to be outdone by re-translations, the French published a second edition in French translated from Robinson (2.): Jean Henry Cast?a, translator, Vie de Benjamin Franklin, ?rits par lui-m?e, suivie de des Oeuvres. This 2-volume work was published again by Buisson, 1798. There is variance in not only the names, but also the supplemental material appended to the works. 1. through 4., however, are all publications of Part One only, in various forms and accuracies.
5. A fragment of Part Two of the work first appears in a Cast?a-translated periodical article in 1798. According to Lemay, Cast?a took his translation from a ms. translation done by Louis Le Veillard in 1791.
6. The next major addition to the work in print does not occur until 1818 with the publication of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin , 3v. London: Colburn, 1817-18. Part Two appears first time in its complete form here, as well as Part Three. William Temple Franklin, Benjamin's grandson and heir, had the complete 4-part holograph (manuscript entirely in Franklin's hand), but traded it for an incomplete copy, hence the publication of only 3 of the 4 parts of the work. Twentieth-century scholarship has shown that William also altered the work, used the previous retranslations 1. and 2. So, this is, in a manner of speaking, a first thus, still incomplete, and still in an altered state. It is largely from the holograph, however, rather than indirectly from translations or re-translations.
7. We may not ordinarily value collected works as important editions, but Jared Sparks's The Works of Franklin 10v. Boston:Hilliard, Gray & Co., 1836-40 is important in the history of Franklin's work. It is in this edition that the word "Autobiography" by which we still know the work, is first used in the first part of the work in Volume I.
