FRANKLIN (Benjamin). Memoirs of the private life of Benjamin - Lot 30

FRANKLIN (Benjamin). Memoirs of the private life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself, and addressed to his son. À Paris, chez Buisson, 1791. In-8, (2 of which the second is blank)-vi-156-208 [erroneously numbered, i.e. 203 pp. numbered 1 to 203 pp., 4 pp. numbered 360 to 363, and one blank p.] pp. half brown marbled basane, smooth spine decorated with brown motifs with orange title page, speckled edges (modern binding in the taste of the period). ORIGINAL EDITION, IN FRENCH TRANSLATION by Jacques Gibelin, of the part of the memoirs devoted to his American youth up to his marriage in 1730 at the age of 24. This edition takes the form of a composite collection, for following this important inaugural passage of the Memoirs are printed two other sets: first a life of Benjamin Franklin, a French translation of a pamphlet critical of his political action, though admiring of his scientific work, attributed to a Maryland loyalist, James Jones Wilmer, and originally published in English in London in 1790 under the title Memoirs of the Late Dr Benjamin Franklin. It was followed by a series of miscellaneous items: a reprint of the French translation of a text by Benjamin Franklin (La Science du Bonhomme Richard), and excerpts from eulogies and newspaper articles by Brissot, Condorcet, Fauchet, Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Mirabeau and others. The book had a great impact, as it was the first to be published and Benjamin Franklin had acquired international stature. After the official tributes that followed his death in 1790, devoted to the scientist he was and the key player in Franco-American relations he had become, these Memoirs added to the greatness of the work accomplished by the public man by underlining the simplicity of the private man's life. A CLASSIC OF MEMOIR AND AMERICAN HISTORY. Benjamin Franklin devoted the last years of his life, spent from 1771 to 1790 in England, France and then the United States, to writing his memoirs. Conducted in four parts up to the year 1757, these unfinished memoirs devote a great deal of time to his private life. Benjamin Franklin provides a first-rate account of middle-class life in America, and highlights the virtues he felt should characterize the plebeian elite: temperance, orderliness, hard work, decisiveness, loyalty, moral balance, selflessness... THE FIRST STEP IN A LONG PUBLISHING HISTORY. Benjamin Franklin's memoirs were first published here in 1791 by publisher François Buisson, in partial form (the first part only) based on a copy of an intermediate version of the text, and without the authorization of the Franklin heirs - William Temple Franklin, the author's grandson and owner of the autograph manuscript, would be very slow to publish the complete autograph manuscript in his possession. Two London editions in English followed in 1793, but retranslated from the French edition of 1791. In 1798, a fragment of the second part of the memoirs was published in French translation (with a retranslation of the first part based on one of the English editions of 1793). In 1818-1819, the long-awaited edition by William Temple Franklin finally appeared, in the original English, but comprising only the first three parts, with passages taken from the 1793 editions and with cuts - a French translation was published shortly afterwards in the same year. It was not until 1868 that the first complete edition of all four parts was published, faithfully compiled by the diplomat John Bigelow from the autograph manuscript he had purchased during his stay in France as U.S. ambassador. RARE. THIS EXEMPLAIRE APPEARED IN THE EXHIBITION BENJAMIN FRANKLIN : UN AMERICAIN A PARIS, 1776-1785, HELD AT THE MUSEE CARNAVALET in Paris from December 5, 2007 to March 9, 2008.