Benjamin Franklin; An American Life

New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 2003. 15th Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [12], 590, [6] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations (some in color). Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads: To Tom Kuhn--With best wishes, Walter Isaacson. This is believed to be inscribed to the Tom Kuhn who was the President of the Edison Electric Institute. Mr. Kuhn joined the Institute in 1985 and was named chief operating officer in 1988, and elected president in 1990. Includes Epilogue; Conclusions; Cast of Characters; Chronology; Currency Conversions; Acknowledgments; Sources and Abbreviations; Notes; and Index. Also includes chapters on Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America; Pilgrim's Progress: Boston, 1706-1723; Journeyman: Philadelphia and London, 1723-1726; Printer: Philadelphia, 1726-1732; Public citizen: Philadelphia, 1731-1748; Scientist and Inventor: Philadelphia, 1744-1751; Politician; Philadelphia, 1749-1756; Troubled Waters: London, 1757-1762; Home Leave: Philadelphia, 1763-1764; Agent Provocateur: London, 1765-1770; Rebel: London, 1771-1775; Independence; Philadelphia, 1775-1776; Courtier: Paris, 1776-1778; Bon Vivant: Paris, 1778-1785; Peacemaker: Paris, 1778-1785; Sage: Philadelphia, 1785-1790. The most interesting thing that Benjamin Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America's first great publicist, he was, in his life and in his writings, consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity. Walter Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American analyst, author, journalist, historian, and professor. Positions that he's held include serving as the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., as well as the chairperson and CEO of CNN and as the managing editor of Time. His writings have appeared in multiple publications such as the New Orleans Times-Picayune and The Sunday Times. Isaacson achieved academic success early and eventually attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar at Pembroke College. After working for multiple years as a journalist, he branched out into authorship and co-wrote with Evan Thomas the work The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). He's written multiple biographical works including Steve Jobs (2011), American Sketches (2009), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992). His books have received praise from a wide variety of reviewers, with Steve Jobs being adapted into a film of the same name in 2015. He's also worked in various positions for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character. Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin's life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America's best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard's Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation's alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution. In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.