FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790). The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin. London: for J. Parsons, 1793.

8vo (210 x 140 mm). Half-title. (Half-title toned, light toning to title-page outer margin, occasional light spotting). Half modern calf antique, uncut. Provenance: Hereford Public Library (rubberstamps on title-page, verso, and several textual leaves at margins).

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Franklin's memoirs, first published in an unauthorized French translation in 1791, and then translated back into English for this edition. Though not Franklin's words exactly, “this account is the epitome of Franklin’s spirit. In it one sees him as a typical though great example of 18th-century enlightenment, a Yankee Puritan who could agree with Rousseau and Voltaire” (Hart 142). Grolier American 21 (“The most widely read of all American autobiographies...it holds the essence of the American way of life”); Howes F-323.