SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reading edition
Starred items are of primary importance.
I. WORKS
Only the most useful and historically significant editions are here listed. The student interested in other editions of Franklin's works, the publication of his separate pamphlets, his contributions to newspapers and periodicals, and his editorial activities should consult P. L. Ford's Franklin Bibliography. Many of these items are conveniently listed in The Cambridge History of American Literature, I, 442 ff.
Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, By Mr. Benjamin Franklin, and Communicated in several Letters to P. Collinson, of London, F. R. S. London: 1751. (For various editions and translations of this and the supplementary letters added to first edition, consult Ford's Bibliography.)
Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces; ... Written by Benj. Franklin, LL. D. and F. R. S.... Now first collected, With Explanatory Plates, Notes, ... [ed. by Benjamin Vaughan]. London: 1779. ("The work is ably performed, many pieces being for the first time printed as Franklin's; and contains valuable notes. But what gives a special value to this collection is that it is the only edition of Franklin's writings [other than his scientific], which was printed during his life time; was done with Franklin's knowledge and consent, and contains an 'errata' made by him for it" [Ford, p. 161]. Review in Monthly Review, LXII, 199-210, 298-308, describes his electrical experiments as constituting a "principia" of electricity. See also Smyth, VII, 410-13, for Franklin's own opinion.)
Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, écrits par luimême, et adressés à son fils; suivis d'un précis historique de sa vie politique, et de plusieurs pièces, relatives à ce père de la liberté. Paris: 1791. (First edition of Franklin's Autobiography to the year 1731; translation attributed to Dr. Jacques Gibelin. "The remainder of his life is a translation from Wilmer's Memoirs of Franklin, with the most objectionable statements omitted" [Ford, p. 183]. For a succinct history of Autobiography, editions, printing, translation, and fortunes of the MS see Bigelow's introduction to Autobiography.)
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. F. R. S. &c.... Written by himself to a late period, and continued to the time of his death, by his Grandson; William Temple Franklin. Now first published from the original MSS.... 3 vols. London: 1818. (The standard collection, according to A. H. Smyth, until Sparks's edition. Representative review in Analectic Magazine, XI, 449-84, June, 1818.)
The Works of Benjamin Franklin; containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official and private not hitherto published; with notes and a life of the author, by Jared Sparks. 10 vols. Boston: 1836-1840. (Although Sparks took undesirable editorial liberties with the MSS, rephrasing, emending, and deleting, this edition still possesses value for its notes and inclusion of pieces which Smyth does not include, but which may have been written by Franklin. Includes many valuable letters to Franklin. For reviews see North American Review, LIX, 446, and LXXXIII, 402.)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Edited from his Manuscript, with Notes and an Introduction, by John Bigelow. Philadelphia: 1868. (To quote Ford: "This is not only the first appearance of the autobiography from Franklin's own copy, but also the first publication in English of the four parts, and the first publication of the very important 'outline' autobiography. It is therefore the first edition of the autobiography" [p. 199].)
The Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself. Now first edited from original manuscripts and from his printed correspondence and other writings, by John Bigelow. 3 vols. Philadelphia: 1874. (Bigelow text of Autobiography and extracts from Franklin's other works.)
The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin including his private as well as his official and scientific correspondence, and numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed with many others not included in any former collection, also the unmutilated and correct version of his autobiography. Comp. and ed. by John Bigelow. 10 vols. New York: 1887-1889. (Corrects many of Sparks's errors and adds "some six hundred new pieces." For first time works are chronologically arranged.)
*The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, collected and edited with a Life and Introduction, by Albert Henry Smyth. 10 vols. New York: 1905-1907. (The standard edition. It is unfortunate that the editor has omitted pieces which are either too Rabelaisian or too metaphysically radical, such as the Dissertation of 1725, or are, in his mind, probably not written by Franklin.)
II. COLLECTIONS AND REPRINTS
No attempt has been made to include the learned journal articles which reprint occasional letters not in Smyth. Letters which aid in understanding Franklin's mind have been referred to in the Introduction and Notes.
Chinard, Gilbert. Les amitiés américaines de Madame d'Houdetot, d'après sa correspondance inédite avec Benjamin Franklin et Thomas Jefferson. Paris: 1924.
Diller, Theodore. Franklin's Contribution to Medicine. Brooklyn: 1912. (Able collection of Franklin's letters bearing on medicine. Franklin is described "as one of the greatest benefactors, friends, and patrons of the medical profession as well as a most substantial contributor to the science and art of medicine.")
[Franklin, Benjamin.] A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. Reproduced from the first edition, with a bibliographical note by Lawrence C. Wroth. The Facsimile Text Society, New York: 1930. (Although A. H. Smyth omitted this work from his Writings of Benjamin Franklin, suggesting that "the work has no value," it is difficult to see how a study of the modus operandi of Franklin's mind could be thoroughly made without it. Parton in his Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, and I. W. Riley in his American Philosophy: The Early Schools have reprinted it in appendices.)
Franklin, Benjamin. Poor Richard's Almanack. Being the Almanacks of 1733, 1749, 1756, 1757, 1758, first written under the name of Richard Saunders. With a foreword by Phillips Russell. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. ("First facsimile edition of a group of the Almanacks to be published.")
Franklin, Benjamin. The Prefaces, Proverbs, and Poems of Benjamin Franklin Originally Printed in Poor Richard's Almanacs for 1733-1758. Collected and ed. by P. L. Ford. Brooklyn: 1890. (Best collection of its kind; in addition contains account of popularity and function of almanacs in colonial period.)
Franklin, Benjamin. Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. Facsimile reprint, with an introduction by William Pepper. Philadelphia: 1931. (Franklin's notes omitted in Smyth. Proposals also reprinted by the William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan: 1927; "though not a facsimile reprint," it does include the notes. Thomas Woody in his Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin [New York: 1931] reprints it with the notes.)
Franklin, Benjamin. The Sayings of Poor Richard, 1733-1758. Condensed and ed. by T. H. Russell. N.p.: n.d. (Best aphorisms chronologically arranged.)
Goodman, N. G., ed. The Ingenious Dr. Franklin; Selected Scientific Letters of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: 1931. (Includes several items not published in Smyth edition.)
Letters to Benjamin Franklin, from his Family and Friends, 1751-1790. [Ed. by William Duane.] New York: 1859.
Pepper, William. The Medical Side of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: 1911. (Essentially quotations from the A. H. Smyth edition. Franklin is viewed as "an early and great hygienist.")
Stifler, J. M., ed. "My Dear Girl." The Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin with Polly Stevenson, Georgiana and Catherine Shipley. New York: 1927. (Engaging collection showing Franklin's "capacity for lively and enduring friendship" [p. vii]. Many of the letters to Franklin "printed now for the first time." Contains several of Franklin's letters hitherto unpublished.)
III. BIOGRAPHIES
Becker, Carl. "Benjamin Franklin," in Dictionary of American Biography. New York: 1931. VI, 585-98. (The most authoritative brief biography.)
*Bruce, W. C. Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed. 2 vols. New York: 1917. (In spite of occasional extravagant statements and a conservative temperament preventing him from discussing Franklin's religion with sympathetic and historical insight, Mr. Bruce has provided a brilliant and perspicuous survey. "Self-revealed" fails to do justice to Bruce's incisive commentary.)
*Faÿ, Bernard. Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times. Boston: 1929. (A readable critical biography said to be based on "six hundred to nine hundred unpublished letters." Would have been more useful had it been given scholarly documentation. Some new light on Franklin's Masonic activities and his efforts during 1757-1762 to effect the growth of a British empire. [Faÿ used the Franklin-Galloway correspondence in the W. S. Mason and W. L. Clements collections.] Believes that Franklin was a "follower of the seventeenth-century English Pythagoreans": since this belief is largely undocumented, one feels it curious that Pythagoreanism should bulk larger than the pattern of thought provoked by Locke and Newton. See very critical reviews by H. M. Jones in American Literature, II, 306-12 [Nov., 1930], and W. C. Bruce, American Historical Review, XXXV, 634 ff. [April, 1930]. The latter concludes that "there is very little, indeed, in the text of the book under review that makes any unquestionably substantial addition to our pre-existing knowledge of Franklin, or is marked by anything that can be termed freshness of interpretation.")
Faÿ, Bernard. The Two Franklins: Fathers of American Democracy. Boston: 1933. (Charmingly spirited portrait of patriarchal Franklin of Passy [reworking of materials in Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times]. Faÿ's habit of mingling quotation, paraphrase, and intuition in use of Bache's Diary suggests untrustworthy documentation. The second Franklin is, of course, Benjamin Franklin Bache [1769-1798, son of Sally Franklin and Richard Bache], editor of the republican Aurora General Advertiser. For a judicial, unsympathetic review see A. Guerard's in the New York Herald Tribune Books, Oct. 22, 1933. J. A. Krout, in the American Historical Review, XXXIX, 741-2 [July, 1934], observes that Faÿ "fails to establish the elder Franklin's paternal relation to the democratic forces of the 'revolutionary' decade after 1790.")
Fisher, S. G. The True Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: 1899. (Highly prejudiced interpretation with disproportionate attention to Franklin's acknowledged shortcomings.)
*Ford, P. L. The Many-Sided Franklin. New York: 1899. (A gracefully solid and inclusive standard work.)
Hale, E. E., and Hale, E. E., Jr. Franklin in France. From Original Documents, Most of Which Are Now Published for the First Time. 2 vols. Boston: 1887-1888. (Convenient collection of letters to Franklin; authors had access to Stevens and American Philosophical Society collections. Franklin letters and documents here given later published in Smyth. Useful chapters on Franklin's friends, his vogue in France, meetings with Voltaire, his activities in science, his interest in balloons, and investigation of Mesmerism. See reviews in Dial, VIII, 7, IX, 204; Nation, XLIV, 368; Athenaeum, II, 77 [1887]; Atlantic Monthly, LX, 318.)
McMaster, J. B. Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters. American Men of Letters series. Boston: 1887. (Fullest account of this aspect of the many-minded Franklin. See also MacLaurin and Jorgenson items, pp. clxv, clxvi below.)
More, P. E. Benjamin Franklin. Riverside Biographical Series. Boston: 1900. (Suggestive of a précis of Parton's Life with judicial, if not historical, penetration. Stimulating notes, such as the following: Franklin was "a great pagan, who lapsed now and then into the pseudo-religious platitudes of the eighteenth-century deists.")
Morse, John Torrey, Jr. Benjamin Franklin. American Statesmen series. Boston: 1889. (Compact account stressing his political and diplomatic career.)
*Parton, James. Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. 2 vols. New York: 1864. (Although not all works ascribed to Franklin by Parton are by his pen, and although new materials have been added to the Franklin canon, he remains the most encyclopedic and often the most penetrating of Franklin's biographers. He deserves credit for printing in an appendix Franklin's Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. For reviews see North American Review [July, 1864]; Atlantic Monthly [Sept., 1864]; London Quarterly, XXIII, 483; Littell's Living Age, LXXXIV, 289.)
Russell, Phillips. Benjamin Franklin, the First Civilised American. New York: 1926. (The esprit and readableness of this popular work do not offset its lack of precision, historical scholarship, and taste.)
Smyth, Albert H. "Life of Benjamin Franklin," in Vol. X, 141-510, of The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. (Stimulating survey.)
Swift, Lindsay. Benjamin Franklin. Beacon Biographies of Eminent Americans. Boston: 1910. (Brief series of biographical "impressions" arranged chronologically.)
Weems, Mason L. The Life of Benjamin Franklin, with many Choice Anecdotes and Admirable Sayings of this Great Man. Baltimore: 1815. (One would think it unfair to smile at a writer who had the wit to describe Franklin as one who "with such equal ease, could play the Newton or the Chesterfield, and charm alike the lightnings and the ladies." Contains some imaginative, though intuitive, remarks on Franklin's religion.)
IV. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES
Abbe, C. "Benjamin Franklin as Meteorologist," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XLV, 117-28 (1906). ("Worthy co-laborer" with Newton, Huygens, Descartes, Boyle, and Gay-Lussac. He is "the first meteorologist of America," "pioneer of the rational long-range forecasters.")
Abbot, G. M. A Short History of the Library Company of Philadelphia: Compiled from the Minutes, together with some personal reminiscences. Philadelphia: 1913.
Amiable, L. Une loge maçonnique d'avant 1789. La R.·. L.·. Les Neuf Sœurs. Paris: 1897. (Fullest account of Franklin's activities in French Freemasonry.)
Analectic Magazine, XI, 449-84 (June, 1818). (Review of W. T. Franklin's edition of Franklin's works. Complexion of this eulogy suggested by: "His name is now exalted in Europe above any others of the eighteenth century.")
Angoff, Charles. A Literary History of the American People. New York: 1931. II, 295-310. (It would be difficult to match the debonair ignorance of this violently hostile essay.)
"A Poem on the Death of Franklin," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, XV, 109 (Jan., 1930). (A typical elegy based on theme suggested by Turgot's epigram on Franklin.)
Bache, R. M. "Smoky Torches in Franklin's Honor," Critic, XLVIII, 561-6 (June, 1906). (Charming in its caustic though just view that "articles on Franklin have verged on superfluity.")
Bache, R. M. "The So-Called 'Franklin Prayer-Book,'" Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXI, 225-34 (1897). (See Rev. John Wright's account of the same in Early Prayer Books of America [St. Paul: 1896], pp. 386-99.)
Biddison, P. "The Magazine Franklin Failed to Remember," American Literature, IV, 177-80 (May, 1932). (Survey of the Franklin-Webbe altercation concerning the inauguration of Franklin's General Magazine, and Historical Chronicle ..., 1741.)
Bigelow, John. "Franklin as the Man," Independent, LX, 69-72 (Jan. 11, 1906). (Stresses his tolerance, common sense, and "constitutional unwillingness to dogmatize.")
Bleyer, W. G. Main Currents in the History of American Journalism. Boston: 1927. (Chapters I-II contain excellent survey of the New England Courant, and the Pennsylvania Gazette during its formative years. Bibliography, pp. 431-41.)
Bloore, Stephen. "Joseph Breintnall, First Secretary of the Library Company," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LIX, 42-56 (Jan., 1935). (Valuable notes on Franklin's collaborator in Busy-Body series.)
Bloore, Stephen. "Samuel Keimer. A Foot-note to the Life of Franklin," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LIV, 255-87 (July, 1930). (Readers of the Autobiography will appreciate this excellent study of one who figures prominently in its pages.)
Brett-James, N. G. The Life of Peter Collinson. London: [1917]. (Many notes on Franklin-Collinson friendship. Collinson, it is remembered, "started Franklin on his career as a researcher in electricity.")
Buckingham, J. T. Specimens of Newspaper Literature; with Personal Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Reminiscences. 2 vols. Boston: 1850. (Vol. I, 49-88, discusses New England Courant. Identifies Dogood Papers as Franklin's.)
Bullen, H. L. "Benjamin Franklin and What Printing Did for Him," American Collector, II, 284-91 (May, 1926).
Butler, Ruth L. Doctor Franklin, Postmaster General. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. (A sturdily documented study illustrating that Franklin "furnished the most highly efficient administration to the postal system during the colonial period.")
Canby, H. S. "Benjamin Franklin," in Classic Americans. New York: 1931, pp. 34-45. (Spirited estimate partly vitiated by excessive emphasis on influence of Quakerism; Canby observes that Franklin's mind represents "Quakerism conventionalized, stylized, and Deicized.")
*Carey, Lewis J. Franklin's Economic Views. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. (Excellent survey.)
Cestre, Charles. "Franklin, homme représentatif," Revue Anglo-Américaine, 409-23, 505-22 (June, August, 1928).
Choate, J. H. "Benjamin Franklin," in Abraham Lincoln, and Other Addresses in England. New York: 1910, pp. 47-94. (Sanely eulogistic biographical survey.)
Condorcet, Marquis de. Éloge de M. Franklin, lu à la séance publique de l'Académie des Sciences, le 13 Nov., 1790 ... Paris: 1791. (Both a eulogy, and an interpretation of why France, as representative of the Enlightenment, eulogized the Philadelphia tradesman. By the most sublime of the philosophes.)
Cook, E. C. Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750. New York: 1912. (Trenchant analysis of Franklin's indebtedness to Addison and Steele—especially in the Dogood Papers—the character of the New England Courant, advertisements of books in Pennsylvania Gazette, etc. "Benjamin Franklin was the only prominent man of the period who deliberately attempted to spread the knowledge and love of literature among his countrymen.")
Crane, V. W. "Certain Writings of Benjamin Franklin on the British Empire and the American Colonies," Papers of the Bibliographical Society, XXVIII, Pt. 1, 1-27 (1934). (Newly identified Franklin papers more than double existing canon. He becomes "the chief agent of the American propaganda in England, especially between 1765 and 1770." New canon promises to "illuminate the development of Franklin's political ideas." Very significant.)
Cumston, C. G. "Benjamin Franklin from the Medical Viewpoint," New York Medical Journal, LXXXIX, 3-12 (Jan. 2, 1909). (Useful survey.)
Cutler, W. P., and Cutler, J. P. Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler. 2 vols. Cincinnati: 1888. (Portrait of patriarchal Franklin at age of eighty-four.)
Dickinson, A. D. "Benjamin Franklin, Bookman," Bookman, LIII, 197-205 (May, 1921). (Brief account of Franklin imprints.)
Discours du Comte de Mirabeau. Dans la séance du 11 Juin, sur la mort de Benjamin Francklin [sic]. Imprimé par ordre de l'Assemblée National. Paris: 1790.
Draper, J. W. "Franklin's Place in the Science of the Last Century," Harper's Magazine, LXI, 265-75 (July, 1880). (Franklin's discoveries "were only embellishments of his life." Superficial.)
Duniway, C. A. The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts. Cambridge, Mass.: 1906. (Chapter VI includes account of James Franklin and the New England Courant.)
Eddy, G. S. "Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Library," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, N. S. XXXIV, 206-26 (Oct., 1924). (This indefatigable scholar has ascertained the titles of 1350 volumes in Franklin's library. This survey article does not list the titles.)
*Eiselen, M. R. Franklin's Political Theories. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. (Thoughtful survey.)
Eiselen, M. R. The Rise of Pennsylvania Protectionism. Philadelphia: 1932. (University of Pennsylvania dissertation. Chapter I describes Franklin's holding to laissez faire in a state dominantly protectionist.)
Eliot, T. D. "The Relations Between Adam Smith and Benjamin Franklin before 1776," Political Science Quarterly, XXXIX, 67-96 (March, 1924). (Exhaustive documentary data which fails to establish specific and incontrovertible Franklin influence on Smith.)
"Excerpts from the Papers of Dr. Benjamin Rush," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXIX, 15-30 (Jan., 1905). (Includes "Conversations with Franklin," pp. 23-8: Franklin terms Latin and Greek the "quackery of literature"; is alleged to have reprobated the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, in that it placed "the Supreme power of the State in the hands of a Single legislature." Other interesting sidelights.)
Farrand, Max, ed. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. 3 vols. New Haven: 1911. (Records show Franklin as a sober moderator: when rival factions tended to render the convention impotent, he said, "When a broad table is to be made, and the edges <of planks do not fit> the artist takes a little from both, and makes a good joint.")
Fauchet, Claude. Éloge civique de Benjamin Franklin, prononcé, le 21 Juillet 1790, dans la Rotonde, au nom de la Commune de Paris. Paris: 1790.
Faÿ, Bernard. "Franklin et Mirabeau collaborateurs," Revue de Littérature Comparée, VIII, 5-28 (1928). (Franklin furnished materials for Mirabeau's Considerations on the Order of Cincinnatus.)
Faÿ, Bernard. "Learned Societies in Europe and America in the Eighteenth Century," American Historical Review, XXXVII, 255-66 (Jan., 1932). (Urges that like all learned societies in the eighteenth century, Franklin's Junto and American Philosophical Society "had Masonic leanings.")
Faÿ, Bernard. "Le credo de Franklin," Correspondant, 570-8 (Feb. 25, 1930).
Faÿ, Bernard. "Les débuts de Franklin en France," Revue de Paris, 577-605 (Feb. 1, 1931).
Faÿ, Bernard. "Les dernières amours d'un philosophe," Correspondant, 381-96 (May 10, 1930).
Faÿ, Bernard. "Le triomphe de Franklin en France," Revue de Paris, 872-96 (Feb. 15, 1931).
Ford, P. L. "Franklin as Printer and Publisher," Century Magazine, LVII, 803-17 (April, 1899).
Ford, W. C. "Franklin and Chatham," Independent, LX, 94-7 (Jan. 11, 1906).
Ford, W. C. "Franklin's New England Courant," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, LVII, 336-53 (April, 1924).
Ford, W. C. "One of Franklin's Friendships. From Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence between Madame de Brillon and Benjamin Franklin, 1776-1789," Harper's Magazine, CXIII, 626-33 (Sept., 1906).
Foster, J. W. "Franklin as a Diplomat," Independent, LX, 84-9 (Jan. 11, 1906).
Fox, R. H. Dr. John Fothergill and His Friends; Chapters in Eighteenth Century Life. London: 1919. (Franklin and Fothergill, "lovers of nature and keen students of physical science," met in 1757. See also J. C. Lettsom, Memoirs of John Fothergill, 4th ed., London: 1786.)
Garrison, F. W. "Franklin and the Physiocrats," Freeman, VIII, 154-6 (Oct. 24, 1923). (Transcended by Carey's chapter in Franklin's Economic Views, but has quotation from Dupont de Nemours [1769]: "Who does not know that the English have today their Benjamin Franklin, who has adopted the principles and the doctrines of our French economists?")
Goggio, E. "Benjamin Franklin and Italy," Romanic Review, XIX, 302-8 (Oct., 1928). (Largely through the efforts of G. Beccaria, "Benjamin Franklin was one of the first Americans to gain eminence and popularity among the people of Italy.")
Goode, G. B. "The Literary Labors of Benjamin Franklin," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XXVIII, 177-97 (1890).
Grandgent, C. H. "Benjamin Franklin the Reformer," in Prunes and Prisms, with Other Odds and Ends. Cambridge, Mass.: 1928, pp. 86-97. ("The principles advocated in his unfinished exposition [on spelling reform] are those which phoneticians now advocate.")
Greene, S. A. "The Story of a Famous Book," Atlantic Monthly, XXVII, 207-12 (Feb., 1871). (A kind of précis of Bigelow's Introduction to Autobiography.)
Griswold, A. W. "Three Puritans on Prosperity," New England Quarterly, VII, 475-93 (Sept., 1934). (Cotton Mather, Timothy Dwight, and Franklin. One wonders by what right Franklin is dubbed the "soul of Puritanism.")
Guedalla, Philip. "Dr. Franklin," in Fathers of the Revolution. New York: 1926, pp. 215-34. (Chatty popular review of "the first high-priest of the religion of efficiency.")
Guillois, Antoine. Le salon de Madame Helvétius. Paris: 1894.
Gummere, R. M. "Socrates at the Printing Press. Benjamin Franklin and the Classics," Classical Weekly, XXVI, 57-9 (Dec. 5, 1932). (Survey of his references to the classics, with occasional estimates of impact on his mind.)
Hale, E. E. "Ben Franklin's Ballads," New England Magazine, N. S. XVIII, 505-7 (1898). (Thinks "The Downfall of Piracy," found in Ashton's Real Sea-Songs, is "one of the two lost ballads" Franklin mentions in Autobiography.)
Hale, E. E. "Franklin as Philosopher and Moralist," Independent, LX, 89-93 (Jan. 11, 1906). (Does not go beyond terming Franklin's philosophy common sense.)
Harrison, Frederic. "Benjamin Franklin," in Memories and Thoughts. New York: 1906, pp. 119-23. (Keen appraisal.)
Hart, C. H. "Benjamin Franklin in Allegory," Century Magazine, XLI (N. S. XIX), 197-204 (Dec., 1890). (The French sanctify Franklin in allegory.)
Hart, C. H. "Who Was the Mother of Franklin's Son? An Inquiry Demonstrating that She Was Deborah Read, Wife of Benjamin Franklin," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXXV, 308-14 (July, 1911). (Plausible circumstantial evidence is offered.)
Hays, I. M. The Chronology of Benjamin Franklin, Founder of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia: 1904.
Hill, D. J. "A Missing Chapter of Franco-American History," American Historical Review, XXI, 709-19 (July, 1916). (Political interests of Masonic "Lodge of the Nine Sisters," Paris, of which Franklin was an active member. Franklin described as "creator of constitutionalism in Europe.")
Houston, E. J. "Franklin as a Man of Science and an Inventor," Journal of the Franklin Institute, CLXI, Nos. 4-5, 241-383 (April-May, 1906).
Hulbert, C. Biographical Sketches of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, General Washington, and Thomas Paine; with an Essay on Atheism and Infidelity. London: 1820. (Franklin and Washington made almost saintly to contrast with Paine, "a notorious Unbeliever." Quotes one who sees Franklin as "the patriot of the world, the playmate of the lightning, the philosopher of liberty.")
Jackson, M. K. Outlines of the Literary History of Colonial Pennsylvania. Lancaster, Pa.: 1906. (Especially chapter III, which surveys Franklin as man of letters.)
Jernegan, M. W. "Benjamin Franklin's 'Electrical Kite' and Lightning Rod," New England Quarterly, I, 180-96 (April, 1928). ("The question still remains however whether Franklin flew his kite before he heard of the French experiments, and thus discovered the identity of lightning and electricity independently." Summarizes and supersedes: McAdie, A., "The Date of Franklin's Kite Experiment," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, N. S. XXXIV, 188-205; Rotch, A. L., "Did Benjamin Franklin Fly His Electrical Kite before He Invented the Lightning Rod?" Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, N. S. XVIII, 115-23.)
Jordan, J. W. "Franklin as a Genealogist," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXIII, 1-22 (April, 1899).
Jorgenson, C. E. "A Brand Flung at Colonial Orthodoxy. Samuel Keimer's 'Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences,'" Journalism Quarterly, XII, 272-7 (Sept., 1935). (Shows deistic tendencies.)
Jorgenson, C. E. "The New Science in the Almanacs of Ames and Franklin," New England Quarterly, VIII, 555-61 (Dec., 1935). (Newtonianism and scientific deism diffused through these popular almanacs.)
Jorgenson, C. E. "Sidelights on Benjamin Franklin's Principles of Rhetoric," Revue Anglo-Américaine, 208-22 (Feb., 1934). (Franklin's principles in general are consonant with the eighteenth-century neoclassic ideals.)
Jorgenson, C. E. "The Source of Benjamin Franklin's Dialogues between Philocles and Horatio (1730)," American Literature, VI, 337-9 (Nov., 1934). (The source is Shaftesbury's "The Moralists," in the Characteristics.)
*Jusserand, J. J. "Franklin in France," in Essays Offered to Herbert Putnam ... Ed. by W. W. Bishop and A. Keogh. New Haven: 1929, pp. 226-47. (Delightful summary.)
Kane, Hope F. "James Franklin Senior, Printer of Boston and Newport," American Collector, III, 17-26 (Oct., 1926). (A study of his New England Courant and his place in the development of freedom of the press.)
King, M. R. "One Link in the First Newspaper Chain, The South Carolina Gazette," Journalism Quarterly, IX, 257-68 (Sept., 1932). (Franklin's partnership with Thomas Whitemarsh in 1731 is here alleged to have begun the first American newspaper "chain.")
Kite, Elizabeth S. "Benjamin Franklin—Diplomat," Catholic World, CXLII, 28-37 (Oct., 1935). (An intelligent and appreciative brief survey of the subject, with a considerable preface showing the extent to which Franklin's worldly success grew out of his religious views.)
Lees, F. "The Parisian Suburb of Passy: Its Architecture in the Days of Franklin," Architectural Record, XII, 669-83 (Dec., 1902). (Several good illustrations included.)
Livingston, L. S. Franklin and His Press at Passy; An Account of the Books, Pamphlets, and Leaflets Printed There, including the Long-Lost Bagatelles. The Grolier Club, New York: 1914. (For additions to this work begun by L. S. Livingston, see R. G. Adams, "The 'Passy-ports' and Their Press," American Collector, IV, 177-80 [Aug., 1927], which includes bibliography useful to study of the Passy imprints.)
MacDonald, William. "The Fame of Franklin," Atlantic Monthly, XCVI. 450-62 (Oct., 1905).
Mackay, Constance D'A. Franklin. A Play. New York: 1922.
MacLaurin, Lois M. Franklin's Vocabulary. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. (His "conservative ideas about linguistic innovations" are to a notable degree achieved in his practices. For example, of a vocabulary of 4062 words used in his writings between 1722 and 1751, "only 19 were discovered to be pure 'Americanisms.'")
McMaster, J. B. "Franklin in France," Atlantic Monthly, LX, 318-26 (Sept., 1887). (Good survey, based on Hale and Hale, Franklin in France.)
Malone, Kemp. "Benjamin Franklin on Spelling Reform," American Speech, I, 96-100 (Nov., 1925). (Franklin was the "first American to tackle English phonetics scientifically.")
Mason, W. S. "Franklin and Galloway: Some Unpublished Letters," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, N. S. XXXIV, 227-58 (Oct., 1924). (Significant sidelights cast on "the problems of Pennsylvania colonial history from 1757 to 1760." Excellent summary of Franklin's and Galloway's victory over the Proprietors. Mr. Mason's collection includes many valuable letters [Franklin-Galloway] between 1757 and 1772, not published in Smyth.)
Mathews, Mrs. L. K. "Benjamin Franklin's Plans for a Colonial Union, 1750-1775," American Political Science Review, VIII, 393-412 (Aug., 1914).
Melville, Herman. Israel Potter. London: 1923. (Graphic intuitive portrait of Franklin: he lives as a "household Plato," "a practical Magian in linsey-woolsey," a "didactically waggish," prudent courtier who "was everything but a poet.")
Mémoires de l'Abbé Morellet, de l'Académie Française, sur le dixhuitième siècle et sur la Révolution. 2 vols. Paris: 1821. (Especially II, 286-311. Franklin viewed as very emblem of Liberty.)
Montgomery, T. H. A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770. Philadelphia: 1900.
Monthly Review; or Literary Journal: By Several Hands. London: 1770. XLII, 199-210, 298-308. ("The experiments and observations of Dr. Franklin constitute the principia of electricity, and form the basis of a system equally simple and profound.")
*More, P. E. "Benjamin Franklin," in Shelburne Essays, Fourth Series. New York: 1906, pp. 129-55. (Provocative appraisal: stresses Franklin's "contemporaneity," his tendency to be oblivious to the past—a suggestive, if a moot point.)
Morgan, W. Memoirs of the Life of Rev. Richard Price. London: 1815. (Notes on Franklin's relations with Price during early 1760's; meetings at Royal Society and London Coffee-house.)
Mottay, F. Benjamin Franklin et la philosophie pratique. Paris: 1886. (Good model for citizens of a free nation and "le véritable catechisme de l'homme vertueux." Also several just remarks on his style which possesses "les mots épiques d'un Corneille et les élégantes périphrases d'un Racine.")
Moulton, C. W., ed. Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Buffalo, N. Y.: 1901. IV, 79-106. (Stimulating assembly of extracts which aids student in discovering the history of Franklin's reputation.)
Mustard, W. P. "Poor Richard's Poetry," Nation, LXXXII, 239, 279 (March 22, April 5, 1906). (Indicates Franklin's borrowings from Dryden, Pope, Prior, Gay, Swift, and others.)
Nichols, E. L. "Franklin as a Man of Science," Independent, LX, 79-84 (Jan. 11, 1906). (Franklin's mind "turned ever by preference to the utilitarian and away from the theoretical and speculative aspects of things.")
"Notice sur Benjamin Franklin," in Œuvres posthumes de Cabanis. Paris: 1825, pp. 219-74. (Representative in its rapturous eulogy.)
Oberholtzer, E. P. The Literary History of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: 1906. (Chap. II, "The Age of Franklin," written with conservative bias, belabors Franklin who as a statesman "was almost as wrong as Paine and Mirabeau." What Voltaire was to France, Franklin was to his native city and state.)
Oswald, J. C. Benjamin Franklin in Oil and Bronze. New York: 1926. ("Probably the features and form of no man who ever lived were delineated so frequently and in such a variety of ways as were those of Benjamin Franklin." Best survey of its kind, including many excellent reproductions.)
Oswald, J. C. Benjamin Franklin, Printer. Garden City, N. Y.: 1917. (Fullest and ablest account of this phase of Franklin's life.)
Owen, E. D. "Where Did Benjamin Franklin Get the Idea for His Academy?" Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LVIII, 86-94 (Jan., 1934). (Inconclusive evidence attributing it to Dr. Philip Doddridge.)
*Parker, Theodore. "Benjamin Franklin," in Historic Americans. Ed. with notes by S. A. Eliot. Boston: 1908 [written in 1858]. (Franklin "thinks, investigates, theorizes, invents, but never does he dream." Although Parker, an idealist and reformer, exalts "the sharp outline of his [Franklin's] exact idea," his humanitarianism, his combining the "rare excellence of Socrates and Bacon" in making things "easy for all to handle and comprehend," he concludes that Franklin is "a saint devoted to the almighty dollar." There are few more readable estimates.)
*Parrington, V. L. "Benjamin Franklin," in The Colonial Mind, 1620-1800. New York: 1927, pp. 164-78. (Emphasizes Franklin's tendencies toward agrarian democracy; Parrington's indifference to the genetic approach and his chronic economic determinism lead him to slight the primary importance of Franklin's religious and philosophic views in conditioning his other activities.)
Pennington, E. L. "The Work of the Bray Associates in Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LVIII, 1-25 (Jan., 1934). (Franklin's humanitarian interest in negro education. In 1758 he writes from London urging school for instructing young Negroes in Philadelphia.)
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXV, 307-22, 516-26 (1901), XXVI, 81-90, 255-64 (1902). (Reprints one of Dean Tucker's pamphlets with Franklin's annotations. Casts light on Franklin's loyalty to the Crown, while rebellious against Parliament.)
Potamian, Brother, and Walsh, J. J. Makers of Electricity. New York: 1909. ("Franklin and Some Contemporaries," chapter II, pp. 68-132, by Brother Potamian, is an excellent survey of Franklin's contributions to the science of electricity.)
Powell, E. P. "A Study of Benjamin Franklin," Arena, VIII, 477-91 (Sept., 1893). (Fair survey of Franklin as a diplomatist.)
Priestley, J. The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments. London: 1767. (Many notes observing Franklin's "truly philosophical greatness of mind." Preface contains suggestive generalizations concerning function of the natural philosopher: especially, he who experiments in electricity discerns laws of nature, "that is, of the God of nature himself.")
Rava, Luigi. "La fortuna di Beniamino Franklin in Italia," Prefazione al volume Beniamino Franklin di Lawrence Shaw Mayo. Firenze: n.d.
Repplier, Emma. "Franklin's Trials as a Benefactor," Lippincott's Magazine, LXXVII, 63-70 (Jan., 1906). (Concerning those who during the Revolution wrote Franklin for favors and places.)
Riddell, W. R. "Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LIV, 52-64 (Jan., 1930).
Riddell, W. R. "Benjamin Franklin's Mission to Canada and the Causes of Its Failure," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XLVIII, 111-58 (April, 1924).
*Riley, I. W. American Philosophy: The Early Schools. New York: 1907, pp. 229-65. (Conventional view of Franklin's deism; with C. M. Walsh [see below], Riley overemphasizes influence of Plato on Franklin's thought.)
Riley, I. W. American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism and Beyond. New York: 1915, pp. 68-77. (Graphic glimpses of "most precocious of the American skeptics.")
Rosengarten, J. G. "The American Philosophical Society," reprinted from Founders' Week Memorial Volume. Philadelphia: 1908.
Ross, E. D. "Benjamin Franklin as an Eighteenth-Century Agriculture Leader," Journal of Political Economy, XXXVII, 52-72 (Feb., 1929). (No "rural sentimentalist," Franklin experimented in agriculture, particularly during 1747-1755, as a utilitarian idealist. Quotes one who suggests Franklin was "half physiocratic before the rise of the physiocratic school." Excellent and well-documented survey.)
Sachse, J. F. Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason. Philadelphia: 1906. ("To write the history of Franklin as a Freemason is virtually to chronicle the early Masonic history of America." Soundly documented survey. Includes useful chronological table of Franklin's Masonic activities.)
*Sainte-Beuve, C. A. Portraits of the Eighteenth Century. Tr. by K. P. Wormeley, with a critical introduction by E. Scherer. New York: 1905. I, 311-75. (The two essays on Franklin in Causeries du lundi are "here put together," though with no important omissions from either. Brilliant portrait of the "most gracious, smiling, and persuasive utilitarian," one who assigned "no part to human imagination.")
Seipp, Erika. Benjamin Franklins Religion und Ethik. Darmstadt: 1932. (Suggestive, though brief, view of Franklin's deism and utilitarianism. Attempts to see his thought in reference to various representative deists. This is not, however, a "source" study.)
Shepherd, W. R. History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania. New York: 1896. (Franklin emerges as "a sort of tribune to the people," a "mighty Goliath," a "plague" in the eyes of the feudalistic rulers of Pennsylvania, "a huge fief." Author relatively unsympathetic to Franklin.)
*Sherman, S. P. "Franklin and the Age of Enlightenment," in Americans. New York: 1922, pp. 28-62. (Penetrating survey and estimate.)
Smith, William, D.D. Eulogium on Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: 1792. (One agrees with P. L. Ford, that this work "forms a somewhat amusing contrast to the savageness of the Doctor's earlier writings against Franklin." Bombastic in its rhetoric and eulogy.)
Smythe, J. H., Jr., comp. The Amazing Benjamin Franklin. New York: 1929. (Anthology of brief, popular estimates. If individual notes are trivial, the collection illustrates Franklin's many-mindedness, a Renaissance versatility.)
Sonneck, O. G. "Benjamin Franklin's Relation to Music," Music, XIX, 1-14 (Nov., 1900).
Steell, Willis. Benjamin Franklin of Paris, 1776-1785. New York: 1928. (An undocumented, partly imaginative, popular account.)
Stifler, J. M. The Religion of Benjamin Franklin. New York: 1925. (Popular survey. Warm appreciation of Franklin's penchant for projects of a humanitarian sort.)
Stuber, Henry. "Life of Franklin" [a biography meant as a continuation of Franklin's Autobiography], in Columbian Magazine and Universal Asylum, May, July, September, October, November, 1790, and February, March, May, June, 1791.
*Thorpe, F. N., ed. Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania. U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 2 (1892). Washington: 1893. (See especially chapters I, II, written by Thorpe, which deal particularly with Franklin's ideas of self and formal education.)
Titus, Rev. Anson. "Boston When Ben Franklin Was a Boy," Proceedings of the Bostonian Society, pp. 55-72 (1906). (Brief suggestive view of the climate of opinion with regard to inoculation, Newtonianism, and Lockian sensationalism.)
Trent, W. P. "Benjamin Franklin," McClure's Magazine, VIII, 273-7 (Jan., 1897). ("The most complete representative of his century that any nation can point to." Franklin "thoroughly represents his age in its practicality, in its devotion to science, in its intellectual curiosity, in its humanitarianism, in its lack of spirituality, in its calm self-content—in short, in its exaltation of prose and reason over poetry and faith." An enthusiastic and wise account.)
Trowbridge, John. "Franklin as a Scientist," Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, XVIII (1917). (Excellent appreciation of Franklin's capacity for inductive reasoning.)
Tuckerman, H. T. "Character of Franklin," North American Review, LXXXIII, 402-22 (Oct., 1856). (Praises disinterestedness of Franklin as a scientist, as "one whom Bacon would have hailed as a disciple," although he "is not adapted to beguile us 'along the line of infinite desires.'")
Tudury, M. "Poor Richard," Bookman, LXIV, 581-4 (Jan., 1927). (Popular glance at "cynical patriarch of American letters.")
Typothetae Bulletin, XXII, No. 15 (Jan. 11, 1926). (Issue devoted to the printer Franklin.)
Vicq d'Azyr, Félix. Éloge de Franklin. N.p.: 1791.
Victory, Beatrice M. Benjamin Franklin and Germany. Americana Germanica series, No. 21. Press of the University of Pennsylvania: 1915. (Sources reflecting Franklin's reputation in Germany of particular interest.)
Walsh, C. M. "Franklin and Plato," Open Court, XX, 129-33 (March, 1906). (An attempt to interpret his Articles of Belief, 1728, in terms of the Timaeus, Protagoras, Republic, and Euthyphro.)
Webster, Noah. Dissertations on the English Language: With Notes, Historical and Critical. To which is added, By Way of Appendix, an Essay on a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Dr. Franklins Arguments on that Subject. Boston: 1789. (Notable remarks on Franklin's perspicuous and correct style which is "plain and elegantly neat": he "writes for the child as well as the philosopher.")
Wendell, Barrett. A Literary History of America. New York: 1900. (Franklin estimate, pp. 92-103.)
Wetzel, W. A. Benjamin Franklin as an Economist. Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Thirteenth Series, IX, 421-76. Baltimore: 1895. (Useful summary, but superseded by Carey's Franklin's Economic Views.)
Wharton, A. H. "The American Philosophical Society," Atlantic Monthly, LXI, 611-24 (May, 1888).
Bibliographical suggestions relating to Franklin's American friends and contemporaries will be found following the brief but scholarly studies in the Dictionary of American Biography. Of these see especially John Adams (also G. Chinard, Honest John Adams, Boston, 1933); Samuel Adams; Ethan Allen; Nathaniel Ames; Joel Barlow (also V. C. Miller, Joel Barlow: Revolutionist, London, 1791-92, Hamburg, 1932, and T. A. Zunder, Early Days of Joel Barlow, New Haven, 1934); John Bartram; William Bartram (also N. Fagin, William Bartram, Baltimore, 1933); Hugh H. Brackenridge (also C. Newlin, Brackenridge, Princeton, 1933); Cadwallader Colden; John Dickinson; Philip Freneau; Francis Hopkinson; T. Jefferson; Cotton Mather; Jonathan Mayhew; Thomas Paine; David Rittenhouse; Dr. Benjamin Rush (also N. Goodman, Rush, Philadelphia, 1934); Rev. William Smith; Ezra Stiles; John Trumbull; Noah Webster.
V. THE AGE OF FRANKLIN
Adams, J. T. Provincial Society, 1690-1763. (Volume III of A History of American Life, ed. Fox and Schlesinger.) New York: 1927. (Contains useful "Critical Essay on Authorities" consulted, pp. 324-56, which serves as a guide for further study of many phases of the social history of the period.)
Adams, R. G. Political Ideas of the American Revolution. Durham, N. C.: 1922.
Andrews, C. M. The Colonial Background of the American Revolution. New Haven: 1924. (Stresses economic factors and the need of viewing the subject from the European angle; profitably used as companion study to Beer's British Colonial Policy.)
Baldwin, Alice M. The New England Clergy and the American Revolution. Durham, N. C.: 1928. (Prior to 1763 the clergy popularized "doctrines of natural right, the social contract, and the right of resistance" and principles of American constitutional law.)
Beard, C. A. The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy. New York: 1915. (Suggestive, if other factors are not neglected. See C. H. Hull's review in American Historical Review, XXII, 401-3.)
Becker, Carl. The Declaration of Independence; A Study in the History of Political Ideas. New York: 1922. (Excellent survey of natural rights, and the extent to which this concept was influenced by Newtonianism.)
Becker, Carl. The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers. New Haven: 1932. (R. S. Crane observes, after calling attention to certain obscurities and confusions: "The description of the general temper of the 'philosophers,' the characterization of the principal eighteenth-century historians, much at least of the final chapter on the idea of progress—these can be read with general approval for their content and with a satisfaction in Becker's prose style that is unalloyed by considerations of exegesis or terminology" [Philological Quarterly, XIII, 104-6].)
Beer, George L. British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765. New York: 1933 [1907].
Bemis, S. F. The Diplomacy of the American Revolution. New York; 1935. (Brilliant exposition of French, Spanish, Austrian, and other diplomacy relative to the Revolution. Should be supplemented by Frank Monaghan's John Jay.)
Bloch, Léon. La philosophie de Newton. Paris: 1908. (A comprehensive, standard exposition.)
Bosker, Aisso. Literary Criticism in the Age of Johnson. Groningen: 1930. (Reviewed by N. Foerster in Philological Quarterly, XI, 216-7.)
Brasch, F. E. "The Royal Society of London and Its Influence upon Scientific Thought in the American Colonies," Scientific Monthly, XXXIII, 336-55, 448-69 (1931). (Useful survey.)
Brinton, Crane. A Decade of Revolutions, 1789-1799. New York: 1934. (Useful on the pattern of ideas associated with the French Revolution; has a full and up-to-date "Bibliographical Essay," pp. 293-322, with critical commentary.)
Bullock, C. J. Essays on the Monetary History of the United States. New York: 1900. (Useful bibliography, pp. 275-88.)
Burnett, E. C., ed. Letters of Members of the Continental Congress. Washington, D. C.: 1921. (Seven volumes now published include letters to 1784. Contain a mass of new material of first importance, edited with notes, cross-references, and introductions.)
Burtt, E. A. The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science; A Historical and Critical Essay. New York: 1925.
Bury, J. B. The Idea of Progress. New York: 1932 (new edition). (Standard English work on the topic. See also Jules Delvaille, Essai sur l'histoire de l'idée de progrès [Paris, 1910], a more encyclopedic book.)
Channing, Edward. A History of the United States. New York: 1912. (Volumes II-III.)
Clark, H. H. "Factors to be Investigated in American Literary History from 1787 to 1800," English Journal, XXIII, 481-7 (June, 1934). (Suggests the genetic interrelations of classical ideas; neoclassicism; the scientific spirit, rationalism, and deism; primitivism and the idea of progress; physical America and the frontier spirit; agrarianism and laissez faire; Federalism versus Democracy, whether Jeffersonian or French; sentimentalism and humanitarianism; Gothicism; and conflicting currents of aesthetic theory.)
Clark, H. H., ed. Poems of Freneau. New York: 1929. (F. L. Pattee says of the Introduction, "No one has ever traced out better the ramifications of French Revolution deism in America and the effects of its clash with Puritanism" [American Literature, II, 316-7]. Also see Clark's "Thomas Paine's Theories of Rhetoric," Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, XXVIII, 307-39 [1933], which discusses relationships between deism and literary theory.)
Clark, J. M., Viner, J., and others. Adam Smith, 1776-1926. Chicago: 1928. (Brilliant essays on various aspects of Smith's thought and influence. See especially Jacob Viner's "Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire," pp. 116-55, which shows the relations in Smith's mind between economics and religion, between laissez faire and "the harmonious order of nature" posited by the scientific deists.)
Crane, R. S. "Anglican Apologetics and the Idea of Progress, 1699-1745," Modern Philology, XXXI, 273-306 (Feb., 1934), 349-82 (May, 1934). (Demonstrates in masterly fashion how the idea of progress grew out of orthodox defenses of revealed religion, current in Franklin's formative years. Modifies the conventional view that the Church was hostile to the idea of progress and that it derived exclusively from the scientific spirit.)
Davidson, P. G., Jr. "Whig Propagandists of the American Revolution," American Historical Review, XXXIX, 442-53 (April, 1934). (Also see Revolutionary Propaganda in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, 1763-1776. Unpublished dissertation, University of Chicago, 1929.)
"Deism," in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, III, 391-7 (by Ernst Troeltsch).
De la Fontainerie, F., tr. and ed. French Liberalism and Education in the Eighteenth Century: The Writings of La Chalotais, Turgot, Diderot, and Condorcet on National Education. New York: 1932. (Convenient source book.)
Dewey, D. R. Financial History of the United States. New York: 1924 (9th ed.). (Bristles with bibliographical aids for study of eighteenth century.)
Draper, J. W. Eighteenth Century English Aesthetics: A Bibliography. Heidelberg: 1931. (Source materials, pp. 61-128, for aesthetics of literature and drama: includes in appendix, pp. 129-40, ablest secondary works to 1931. An invaluable guide. See additions by R. S. Crane, Modern Philology, XXIX, 251 ff. [1931], W. D. Templeman, ibid., XXX, 309-16, R. D. Havens, Modern Language Notes, XLVII, 118-20 [1932].)
Drennon, Herbert. "Newtonianism: Its Method, Theology, and Metaphysics," Englische Studien, LXVIII, 397-409 (1933-1934). (Other parts of Mr. Drennon's brilliant doctoral dissertation, James Thomson and Newtonianism [University of Chicago, 1928], have been published in Publications of the Modern Language Association, XLIX, 71-80, March, 1934; in Studies in Philology, XXXI, 453-71, July, 1934; and in Philological Quarterly, XIV, 70-82, Jan., 1935.)
Ducros, Louis. French Society in the Eighteenth Century. Tr. from the French by W. de Geijer; with a Foreword by J. A. Higgs-Walker. London: 1927.
Duncan, C. S. The New Science and English Literature in the Classical Period. Menasha, Wis.: 1913. (Scholarly.)
Dunning, W. A. A History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu. New York: 1905, and A History of Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer. New York: 1920. (Standard works.)
Elton, Oliver. The Augustan Age. New York: 1899, and A Survey of English Literature, 1730-1780. 2 vols. London: 1928. (Acute on literary trends, though hardly adequate on ideas.)
Evans, Charles. American Bibliography. Chicago: 1903-1934. (Volumes I-XII, 1639-1799.)
Faÿ, Bernard. Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800. Boston: 1935. (Stimulating conjectures vitiated by extravagant and undocumented conclusions.)
Faÿ, Bernard. The Revolutionary Spirit in France and America. Tr. by R. Guthrie. New York: 1927. (Especially valuable for notes on the vogue of Franklin in France. Highly important comprehensive survey of French influence in America, and the impetus our revolution gave to French liberalism.)
Fisher, S. G. The Quaker Colonies. A Chronicle of the Proprietors of the Delaware. New Haven: 1921. (Useful bibliography, pp. 231-4.)
Fiske, John. The Beginnings of New England, or the Puritan Theocracy in Its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty. Boston: 1896 [1889]. (See also Perry Miller's Orthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630-1650. A Genetic Study. Cambridge, Mass.: 1933.)
Gettell, R. G. History of American Political Thought. New York: 1928. (The standard comprehensive treatment of its subject. Has good bibliographies.)
Gide, Charles, and Rist, Charles. A History of Economic Doctrines from the Time of the Physiocrats to the Present Day. Authorized translation from the second revised and augmented edition of 1913 under the direction of the late Professor Wm. Smart, by R. Richards. Boston: 1915. (Excellent survey of physiocracy.)
Gierke, Otto. Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500 to 1800. With a Lecture on The Ideas of Natural Law and Humanity, by Ernst Troeltsch. Tr. with an introduction by E. Barker. 2 vols. Cambridge, England: 1934. (A standard work, with excellent notes, especially valuable on European backgrounds.)
Gohdes, Clarence. "Ethan Allen and his Magnum Opus," Open Court, XLIII, 128-51 (March, 1929). (Suggests the eighteenth-century battle between revelation and reason, the latter as buttressed by Lockian sensationalism and Newtonian science.)
Greene, E. B. The Provincial Governor in the English Colonies of North America. Cambridge, Mass.: 1898. (Inveterate divergence between provincial governor and provincial assemblies foreshadowed the American Revolution.)
Halévy, E. The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism. Tr. by M. Morris, with a preface by A. D. Lindsay. London: 1928. (A comprehensive, authoritative work.)
Hansen, A. O. Liberalism and American Education in the Eighteenth Century. With an introduction by E. H. Reisner. New York: 1926. (A good bibliography of primary sources and a poor bibliography of secondary sources, pp. 265-96. Although this slights Franklin and deals especially with plans following Franklin's death, it surveys educational ideals with reference to the ideas of the Enlightenment, ideas latent in Franklin's writings.)
Haroutunian, Joseph. Piety versus Moralism, the Passing of the New England Theology. New York: 1932. (An important scholarly work arguing reluctantly that Puritanism declined because it was theocentric and inadequate to the social needs of the time. Has an excellent bibliography.)
Hefelbower, S. G. The Relation of John Locke to English Deism. Chicago: 1918. (The relation between Locke and the English deists is "not causal, nor do they mark different stages of the same movement"; they are "related as coordinate parts of the larger progressive movement of the age." Stresses Locke's tolerance, rationalism, and natural religion.)
Higgs, Henry. The Physiocrats. Six Lectures on the French Économistes of the Eighteenth Century. London: 1897. (Gide and Rist term this a "succinct account" of the physiocratic system.)
Hildeburn, C. R. Issues of the Pennsylvania Press. A Century of Printing, 1685-1784. 2 vols. Philadelphia: 1885-1886. (A highly useful guide to what was being read in Pennsylvania year by year.)
Horton, W. M. Theism and the Scientific Spirit. New York: 1933. (Popular accounts of "Copernican world" and "God in the Newtonian world" in chapters I-II.)
Humphrey, Edward. Nationalism and Religion in America, 1774-1789. Boston: 1924.
Jameson, J. F. The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement. Princeton, N. J.: 1926. (Brief and general, but suggestive.)
Jones, H. M. America and French Culture, 1750-1848. Chapel Hill, N. C.: 1927. (A monumental, elaborately documented comprehensive work, containing an excellent bibliography.)
Jones, H. M. "American Prose Style: 1700-1770," Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 6, 115-51 (Nov., 1934). (Shows that Puritan preachings inculcated the ideal of a simple, lucid, and dignified style.)
Kaye, F. B., ed. The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits. With a Commentary Critical, Historical, and Explanatory. 2 vols. Oxford: 1924. (The introduction is the most lucid and penetrating commentary on Mandeville in relation to the pattern of ideas of his age. See L. I. Bredvold's review in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, XXIV, 586-9, Oct., 1925.)
Koch, G. A. Republican Religion: The American Revolution and the Cult of Reason. New York: 1933. ("A vast body of facts about a host of obscure figures"—reviewed by H. H. Clark in Journal of Philosophy, XXXI, 135-8. Contains an elaborate bibliography.)
Kraus, M. Intercolonial Aspects of American Culture on the Eve of the Revolution. New York: 1928. (Scholarly.)
Lecky, W. E. H. A History of England in the Eighteenth Century. 7 vols. New York: 1892-1893 (new ed.). (A standard work, containing a finely documented treatment of the political aspects of the American Revolution.)
Leonard, S. A. The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, 1700-1800. Madison, Wis.: 1929. (Authoritative.)
Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien. History of Modern Philosophy in France. Chicago: 1899.
Lincoln, C. H. The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania, 1760-1776. Philadelphia: 1901. (A highly important study showing that local sectional strife which would have eventually led to conflict synchronized with the strife between the colony and England.)
Lovejoy, A. O. "The Parallel of Deism and Classicism," Modern Philology, XXIX, 281-99 (Feb., 1932). ("A systematic statement of the rationalistic preconceptions which, when applied in matters of religion terminated in Deism, when applied in aesthetics produced Classicism. An illuminating synthesis, done throughout with characteristic finesse and discrimination" [Philological Quarterly, XII, 106, April, 1933].)
McIlwain, C. H. The American Revolution: A Constitutional Interpretation. New York: 1923. (Offers defense of revolution on English constitutional grounds.)
Martin, Kingsley. French Liberal Thought in the Eighteenth Century: A Study of Political Ideas from Bayle to Condorcet. Boston: 1929. (Stimulating survey of ideology motivating the French revolution, "a dramatic moment when feudalism, clericalism and divine monarchy collapsed.")
Merriam, C. E. A History of American Political Theories. New York: 1924 [1903]. (Authoritative, brief treatment.)
Monaghan, Frank. John Jay, Defender of Liberty. New York: 1935. (A brilliant biography and a fully documented study of the activities and diplomacy of the Continental Congress. Supplements S. F. Bemis; see above.)
Moore, C. A. "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, 1700-1760," Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXXI (N. S. XXIV), 264-325 (June, 1916). (Penetrating and brilliant survey of the growth of altruism, to be supplemented by R. S. Crane's studies of earlier sources.)
Morais, H. M. Deism in Eighteenth Century America. New York: 1934. (If little space is given to the implications of Deism in terms of political, economic, and literary theory, and if the leaders of deistic thought, such as Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine are too lightly dealt with, this work is "substantial, precise, well-documented, modest, cautious, and objective." Has a good bibliography. Reviewed by H. H. Clark, American Literature, VI, 467-9, Jan., 1935. See also Morais's "Deism in Revolutionary America, 1763-89," International Journal of Ethics, XLII, 434-53, July, 1932.)
Morley, John. Diderot and the Encyclopædists. 2 vols. London: 1923. (A suggestive survey, parts of which have been superseded by more recent studies.)
Mornet, Daniel. French Thought in the Eighteenth Century. Tr. by L. M. Levin. New York: 1929. (Lucid and penetrating survey; suggestive notes on the influence of speculation motivated by science.)
Mornet, Daniel. Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (1715-1787). Paris: 1933. (A brilliant work, concluding that without the extraordinary diffusion of radical ideas in all classes in France, the States-General in 1789 would not have adopted revolutionary measures. See C. Brinton's review, American Historical Review, XXXIX, 726-7, 1934.)
Morse, W. N. "Lectures on Electricity in Colonial Times," New England Quarterly, VII, 364-74 (June, 1934). (Presents fourteen items on the vogue of electrical experiments, 1747-1765.)
Mott, F. L. A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850. New York: 1930.
Mullett, C. F. Fundamental Law and the American Revolution, 1760-1776. New York: 1933. (A highly important scholarly study, with excellent bibliography of relevant investigations of recent date. Supplements B. F. Wright.)
Ornstein, Martha. The Rôle of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century. New York: 1913. Reprinted, University of Chicago Press: 1928. (Shows their radical influence. See suggestive reviews in American Historical Review, XXXIV, 386-7, 1929; and Times Literary Supplement [London], 679, Sept. 27, 1928.)
Osgood, H. L. The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century. 4 vols. New York: 1924-1925. (Standard work on political aspects.)
Perkins, J. B. France in the American Revolution. Boston: 1911. (Includes able survey of Franklin's efforts in behalf of colonies.)
Richardson, L. N. A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789. New York: 1931. (An encyclopedic survey indispensable to all students of the period. Enormously documented.)
Robertson, J. M. A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient and Modern. 2 vols. London: 1915. (Third edition, revised and expanded. An important survey, if somewhat militantly partisan.)
Roustan, Marius. The Pioneers of the French Revolution. Tr. by F. Whyte, with an Introduction by H. J. Laski. Boston: 1926. (Thesis: "The spirit of the philosophes was the spirit of the Revolution." Highly readable, but inferior to parallel studies by Martin and Mornet in incisive analysis of patterns of ideas. Stresses picturesque social aspects.)
Schapiro, J. S. Condorcet and the Rise of Liberalism in France. New York: 1934. (Condorcet is the "almost perfect expression of the pioneer liberalism of the period"; he is viewed as the "last of the encyclopedists and the most universal of all." A lucid scholarly study, although hardly superseding Alengry's Condorcet.)
Schlesinger, A. M. "The American Revolution," in New Viewpoints in American History. New York: 1922, pp. 160-83. (A brief but excellent interpretation, stressing economic factors, and presenting a useful "Bibliographical Note," pp. 181-3, including references to studies of political and religious factors. See also studies of the latter by R. G. Adams, Alice Baldwin, Carl Becker, B. F. Wright, C. F. Mullett, C. H. Van Tyne, and Edward Humphrey.)
Schneider, H. W. The Puritan Mind. New York: 1930. (An acute scholarly study, with excellent bibliography. The stress on ideas supplements and balances Parrington's tendency to dismiss ideas as by-products of economic factors.)
Smith, T. V. The American Philosophy of Equality. Chicago: 1927. (Chapter I includes discussion of "natural rights," with recognition of the influence of European theorists.)
Smyth, A. H. The Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors, 1741-1850. Philadelphia: 1892. (Brief descriptive account, mostly superseded by the relevant sections in F. L. Mott's and L. N. Richardson's histories.)
Stephen, Leslie. A History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. 2 vols. London: 1902 (3rd ed.). (As J. L. Laski observes, it is "almost insolent to praise such work." In certain aspects, however, it has been superseded by studies by such men as R. S. Crane, A. O. Lovejoy, H. M. Jones, etc.)
Stimson, Dorothy. The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe. Hanover, N. H.: 1917.
Taylor, O. H. "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," Quarterly Journal of Economics, XLIV, 1-39 (Nov., 1929). ("The evolution of the idea of 'law' in economics" paralleling "its evolution in the natural sciences" led to belief in an economic mechanism which "was regarded as a wise device of the Creator for causing individuals, while pursuing only their own interests, to promote the prosperity of society, and for causing the right adjustment to one another of supplies, demands, prices, and incomes, to take place automatically, in consequence of the free action of all individuals." The author suggests that there is evident an incongruous dichotomy between the mechanistic idea of the physiocrats and their assumption that enlightened men "would be able to use government as a scientific tool for carrying out purely rationalistic measures in the common interest." See also outline of his doctoral thesis on this subject. Harvard University Summaries of Theses [1928], 102-6. An authoritative study of an important subject.)
Torrey, N. L. Voltaire and the English Deists. New Haven: 1930. (Shows Voltaire's great indebtedness to Newtonianism, which he popularized in France, and to earlier deists than Bolingbroke. Authoritative.)
Turberville, A. S., ed. Johnson's England. An Account of the Life and Manners of His Age. 2 vols. Oxford University Press: 1933. (Although this collaborative work neglects political, religious, economic, and aesthetic ideas, it embodies readable and authoritative surveys of external aspects of social history, viewed from many angles. Contains useful bibliographies. See review by H. H. Clark, American Review, II, No. 4 [Feb., 1934].)
Tyler, M. C. A History of American Literature, 1607-1765 (2 vols. New York: 1878), and The Literary History of the American Revolution (2 vols. New York: 1897). (Somewhat grandiloquent but very full survey, including Loyalists. Excellent on literary aspects but partly superseded on ideas. Contains excellent bibliography of primary sources.)
Van Tyne, C. H. The Causes of the War of Independence. Boston: 1922. (Brilliant both in interpretation and style, and well balanced in considering economic, political, social, religious, and philosophic factors.)
Veitch, G. S. The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform. London: 1913. (Useful for English backgrounds.)
Weld, C. R. A History of the Royal Society with Memoirs of the Presidents. 2 vols. London: 1848.
Wendell, Barrett. Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest. Cambridge, Mass.: 1926 [1891]. (A sympathetic study of one of Franklin's masters, based on a deep knowledge of the Puritan spirit.)
Weulersse, Georges. Le mouvement physiocratique en France (de 1756 à 1770). 2 vols. Paris: 1910. (The standard treatment.)
White, A. D. A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. 2 vols. New York: 1897. (Prominent attention given to colonial eighteenth century.)
Whitney, Lois. Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century. Baltimore: 1934. (An acute study of the history of an important idea, especially as embodied in novels. Occasionally misleading because Miss Whitney does not always pay necessary attention to the major individuals' change of attitude, to their genetic development. Contains no bibliography. See Bury, above.)
Williams, David. "The Influence of Rousseau on Political Opinion, 1760-1795," English Historical Review, XLVIII, 414-30 (1933).
Winsor, Justin, ed. Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 vols. Boston: [1884-] 1889. (Especially valuable for bibliographical notes.)
Wright, B. F. American Interpretations of Natural Law. A Study in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: 1931. (An able outline of main trends, although it neglects evidence both in eighteenth-century sermons and in legal papers of colonial attorneys. Shows strong influence of Grotius, Puffendorf, and Locke on Revolutionary theories. Should be supplemented by C. F. Mullett's parallel book. Reviewed by R. B. Morris, American Historical Review, XXXVII, 561-2, April, 1932.)
Wright, T. G. Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730. New Haven: 1920. (Valuable for its check lists of colonial libraries, suggesting books current in Franklin's formative years. The best treatment of its subject although it neglects the literary and aesthetic theories of the period. To be supplemented by books by C. F. Richardson, W. F. Mitchell, and E. C. Cook.)
Further background studies may be found in The Cambridge History of English Literature, Cambridge and New York, 1912-1914, VIII-XI, and The Cambridge History of American Literature, New York, 1917, Vol. I. See also the more up-to-date bibliographies in P. Smith's A History of Modern Culture, New York, 1934, II, 647-76; R. S. Crane's A Collection of English Poems, 1660-1800, New York, 1932, pp. 1115-42; and especially O. Shepard and P. S. Wood, English Prose and Poetry, 1660-1800, Boston, 1934, pp. xxxiii-xxxviii and pp. 937-1067. For bibliographical guides, see note following, p. clxxxviii.
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CHECK LISTS
Boggess, A. C., and Witmer, E. R. Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. (Being the Appendix to the Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, edited by I. M. Hays.) Philadelphia: 1908. (This valuable work lists letters to Franklin, letters from Franklin, and miscellaneous letters, with brief notes on the topics discussed in each letter and place of publication in cases where the letters have been published.)
Books Printed by Benjamin Franklin. Born Jan. 17, 1706. New York: 1906. (Lists best known imprints; useful although eclipsed by Campbell.)
*The Cambridge History of American Literature. New York: 1917. I, 442-52. (Lists of "Collected Works," "Separate Works," and "Contributions to Periodicals" constitute a convenient abridgment of Ford, but the list, "Biographical and Critical," limited to two pages, is at best inadequately suggestive.)
Campbell, W. J. The Collection of Franklin Imprints in the Museum of the Curtis Publishing Company. With a Short-Title Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: 1918.
Campbell, W. J. A Short-Title Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: 1918.
*Faÿ, B. Benjamin Franklin bibliographie et étude sur les sources historiques relatives à sa vie (Vol. III of Benjamin Franklin, bourgeois d'Amérique et citoyen du monde.) Paris: 1931. (Faÿ, in Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times, pp. 517-33, has furnished "only a summary bibliography," which, in spite of its occasional inaccuracies and infelicities in form, contains many useful items, American, English, and French; especially valuable for notes on several manuscript collections. In this French edition the bibliography is more detailed.)
*Ford, P. L. Franklin Bibliography. A List of Books Written by, or Relating to Benjamin Franklin. Brooklyn, N. Y.: 1889. (The standard, time-honored work, unfortunately not superseded.)
Ford, W. C. List of the Benjamin Franklin Papers in the Library of Congress. Washington, D. C.: 1905.
Hays, I. M. Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society. Vols. II-VI in The Record of the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin, under the Auspices of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, April 17 to 20, 1906. Philadelphia: 1908. (A. H. Smyth purports to have printed in his ten-volume edition all of Franklin's letters in this collection. Valuable especially for letters addressed to Franklin.)
"List of Works in the New York Public Library by or Relating to Benjamin Franklin," Bulletin of New York Public Library, X, No. 1. New York: 1906, pp. 29-83.
Rosengarten, J. G. "Some New Franklin Papers," University of Pennsylvania Alumni Register, 1-7 (July, 1903). (A report to the Board of Trustees saying "there are over five hundred pieces of MS among the collection of Franklin papers recently added to the Library of the University." These range from 1731 to Franklin's latest correspondence. Only a few of these pieces are described.)
Stevens, Henry. Benjamin Franklin's Life and Writings. A Bibliographical Essay on the Stevens Collection of Books and Manuscripts Relating to Doctor Franklin. London: 1881. (Pp. 21-40 contain a list of "Franklin's Printed Works.")
Swift, Lindsay. "Catalogue of Works Relating to Benjamin Franklin in the Boston Public Library," Bulletin of the Boston Public Library, V, 217-31, 276-84, 420-33. Boston: 1883. (Including Dr. S. A. Green's collection, this was the "immediate predecessor" to Ford.)
For current articles the student should consult especially the bibliographies in Philological Quarterly, American Literature, Publications of the Modern Language Association, bibliographical bulletins of the Modern Humanities Research Association, and Grace G. Griffin's annual bibliography, Writings on American History.
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