Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was a founding father of the United States and a celebrated figure in the American Enlightenment. Author, printer, political theorist, statesman, and diplomat, Franklin was also a scientist and inventor whose discovery of electricity vies with his acclaim as the author of the commonsensical Poor Richard’s Almanack and his writings on the equality of women and the abolition of slavery. For his many and varied achievements and his iconoclastic personality, he remains America’s quintessential Renaissance Man.
WORKS THAT HAVE APPEARED IN NARRATIVE:
- The Speech of Miss Polly Baker, a short story, in Stories of the Week: 2013–2014