? Benjamin Franklin started creating an outline for a book about his life in the year 1771. He writes about his early life as he started working on his goals such as printing. He also writes about his significant contributions to society since he was a young man. He goes through a numerous amount of experiences he went through during his life. The main theme for this autobiography was that he wanted to simply share his memories with the world. Throughout this book, he recognizes the importance of literature in life. This autobiography to this day is one of the most important historical documents in America and Franklin’s major literary work. It was the very first biography to achieve widespread popularity. Franklin maps out his strategy for his self-made success throughout the book. It allows the reader to explore his ideas of virtue and wealth and much more. It is still considered to be the only enduring best-seller written before the 19th century. Since it was written, it has been printed in many different editions, some leaving out the last parts and changing its context. It consists of four different parts, written in chronological order. Part One was written while Benjamin Franklin was in England around the time of July to August in the year 1771. This is the time he most likely drew up his outline for the book. Part two was written while Franklin was still in France in the year 1784. Franklin wrote Part Three while he was in his eighties. He has just gone home after a long, distinguished career. Part Four, being the shortest, was written in the last few months of Benjamin Franklin’s life as he was in very poor health, being unable to finish the book. Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the 10th son out of 17 children. His father was a soap maker and his mother was the second wife of his father. His father intended for Benjamin to enter into the work of a clergyman. Benjamin was only able to attend school for one year. But as he loved to read, he became an apprentice to his brother James, who was a printer. When he was 17, he ran away to New York in hope of finding work as a printer. Not finding any work, he traveled across New Jersey to Philadelphia, where he finally found work as a printer, which I will discuss further in this paper. Benjamin Franklin talked significantly about what he thought of his errata (mistakes), life virtues, his jobs as a printer, and his wealth in his book. In the beginning of the book, he mentions that since it is impossible to relive your life to fix your errata, he decided to recollect it by writing. This was his main purpose for writing an autobiography of his life. One of the few negative critiques it received was one from D. H. Lawrence for Franklin’s view of his self-portrait. Despite that, his book got rave reviews for his mastery of the form, especially by William Dean Howells. It received a widespread praise for being a record of early America and also for the literary style it portrayed. It is still considered the greatest biography in the history of literature. Throughout this paper, I will discuss in detail several great instances and characters Benjamin Franklin wrote about in his autobiography. The thesis of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is that Benjamin Franklin was a great American printer, author, diplomat, philosopher, and scientist. His many contributions to society overall and the newly formed federal government that followed, make him one of the country’s greatest statesman in American history. At the age of 12, Benjamin Franklin became an apprentice to his brother James Franklin. James at this time owned his own printing house in Boston. Benjamin Franklin was supposed to be his apprentice until the age of 21. Over this period of time, James and Benjamin would constantly find themselves in dispute with each other for several reasons. Benjamin talks about his brother’s cruelty and unfairness. He would work him long hours and beat him as a punishment. This was often considered normal in this time, but Benjamin still took offense to his behavior. Soon after starting, Franklin realized he was very proficient in this business. This work gave him the opportunity to access much better books than before. He would always read when he was not working. James found Benjamin to be quite helpful to him in his work. Benjamin would secretly write articles for his brother’s paper, The New England Courant, under a different name because he knew his brother would not approve of him writing articles for the paper at his age. Shortly after this, James Franklin got arrested for the publication of an article regarding a political topic which was offensive to the Assembly. While he was in jail, Benjamin was in charge of the printing house until James returned. After some time, Benjamin grew tired of his brother’s treatment towards him and set out on his journey to freedom. James reacted very negatively to his departure and mad