The biography of Benjamin Franklin

The New York Sun has posted the entertaining review by biographer Carl Rollyson of the first two volumes of a projected seven-volume biography of Benjamin Franklin by J.A. Leo Lemay: “An unfashionably epic biography.” Rollyson writes:

A seven-volume biography may conjure up visions of tedious detail, but such is not the case, for two reasons: Mr. Lemay’s prose is well-paced, and he intrigues even seasoned students of Franklin with new details and – even better – “new attributions,” delightful additions to the Franklin canon that include public letters, essays, satires, and speeches.
In Mr. Lemay’s volumes, Franklin emerges more than ever as the first major American author.

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