Wit And Wisdom From Poor Richard's Almanack » (MODERN LIB)

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), diplomat, scientist, writer, inventor, and printer, was one of the drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence. In his spare time, he founded the University of Pennsylvania and the first American public library.

Franklin’s Autobiography is one of the most famous works in American literature. He started it as a private collection of anecdotes for his son, but soon it was transformed into a work of history, both personal and national, revealing Franklin as the man who, as Herman Melville said, possessed “deep worldly wisdom and polished Italian tact, gleaming under an air of Arcadian unaffectedness.