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Secondary sourceBook1903

The True Benjamin Franklin

Sydney George Fisher · 1903

A 1903 biography by Sydney George Fisher that examines Franklin's character, career and personal life in detail.

This biography examines Franklin's character and personal life in detail, including sensitive family questions.

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Full text (Wikisource)

About this source

What it is

This is a biography of Benjamin Franklin written by Sydney George Fisher, first published in 1898 with a later edition in 1903. It is preserved as a text on Wikisource.

Why it matters

Fisher's biography discusses Franklin's frank writing about love, marriage and his own shortcomings, and addresses debates among historians, such as questions about his daughter. It shows how biographers have grappled with Franklin's very open and sometimes surprising personal honesty, within the context of his era's habits of candid autobiography.

Look closer

  • Why might Franklin's frankness about his personal life have "surprised many people" when his writings were first read?
  • What does Fisher mean by comparing Franklin's era to that of other frank autobiographers like Rousseau?
  • What historical debates does this biography mention, and why might they matter?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Benjamin Franklin on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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