Genius Fan

If someone was to ask me the best way to ‘get into’ the Eighteenth century, I would say: Learn about Benjamin Franklin. His life story is amazing and I shall now use the twelve commonest synonyms for the word ‘amazing’ to demonstrate. Observe…

Franklin (1706-1790), an American born in Boston, lived to an (1) Astonishing 84 years of age, during a period of time known as The Enlightenment, and during which he showed (2) Awe-inspiring commitment to being productive and helping advance his fellow man, his community, science and his nation. His early years as an apprentice printer in Boston, his involvement in printing the New England Courant and his anonymous letter writing campaigns as Mrs Silence Dogood presage an (3) Extraordinary adulthood. He boldly sailed to England aged 18 in December 1724, the first of a (4) Staggering four (return) journeys crossing the Atlantic to Europe. Before retiring from business at the age of 42 (by which time he’d made his fortune and set himself and his family up for life) he jointly formed the Junto which founded a subscription library in Philadelphia (still going) and the University of Pennsylvania, began printing his first newspaper the Pennsylvania Gazette, created the best-selling Poor Richard’s Almanack, and became the foremost American experimenting with electricity. With (5) Breathtaking audacity he devised his 13 Virtues, a code of moral perfection by which to lead a good life. All of which is (6) Incredible, but that’s only a fraction of his achievements. Oh and he’s the man behind the (7) Sensational kite-flying electricity experiments (in which he had his son fly the kite. Respect!).

The second half of his life he continued to dedicated to scientific research, to travel and to improving (he became postmaster general for North America) and a (8) Spectacular statesmanship, representing the colonies and then America at home and in Britain and France. His (9) Tremendous reputation got him elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, which elected him agent to represent the colony in Britain, which meant he crossed the Atlantic again and got him an invitation to King George III’s coronation in 1761. His bawdiness, or straight talking, was (10) Marvelous, especially in his ‘advice to a friend on choosing a mistress’. (If you know, you know.) His restraint and dignity is (11) Stunning in bearing up to an ambush on his character before George III’s Privy Council over dissatisfaction of his behaviour in favour of the colonies. And his (12) Prodigious fondness and appeal to the ladies of Eighteenth century France is well known as he deftly grew and won French support and backing for the Americans in the Revolutionary War.

You get the message (and I didn’t even mention his role with the American Founding Fathers). Benjamin Franklin led a life which was amazing, and easily exhausts any number of synonyms. Read a book about him. (I read Walter Isaacson’s biography – below. Stupendous!)

Notes
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson (2004)