***VERY SCARCE WITH ORIGINAL GLASSINE DUST JACKET AND IN NEAR MINT CONDITION!!***
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
CONDITION: NEAR MINT - FINE & UNREAD/NF
Now printed for the first time from the Manuscripts as Franklin wrote it, and including his Preliminary Outline; with an Introduction by Carl Van Doren.
Published in 1951 by Heritage Press. First edition thus, first printing. 1/4 cloth over marbled paper boards. All edges red stained by publisher. 233 pages. 10” x 6 3/4” Beautifully illustrated with drawings by William Sharp. Complete in rare and fragile glassine dust jacket and slipcase.
ABOUT THE Autobiography
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790; however, Franklin appears to have called the work his Memoirs. Although it had a tortuous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography ever written.
Franklin's account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods during which he wrote them. There are actual breaks between the first three parts of the narrative, but Part Three's narrative continues into Part Four without an authorial break. The work ends with events in his life from the year 1758 when he was 52 (Franklin would die in 1790 at age 84).
In the "Introduction" of the 1916 publication of the Autobiography, editor F. W. Pine wrote that Franklin's biography provided the "most remarkable of all the remarkable histories of our self-made men" with Franklin as the greatest exemplar.
The book is in beautiful FINE & UNREAD condition - just some light edge wear rubbing else VERY FINE/MINT. Interior pages are very tight in many areas and appear unread/unopened. Interior is almost as new with no writing or wear. A gorgeous copy!
The fragile glassine dust jacket —scarcely included and rarely in collectible condition—is in remarkable NEAR FINE condition with only light edge wear from internal slipcase rubbing.
The slipcase is also present and in VERY GOOD condition - complete, colorful. Rubbed on all sides with some stains and areas of dust soiling.
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