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Notes and Documents NOTES AND DOCUMENTS The Literary Legacy of William Temple Franklin: Controversies over the Publication oj Franklinys Autobiography Today if people recognize the name William Temple Franklin (1760- 1823), it is probably because of the fact that he was the grandson of the versatile Benjamin Franklin and the illegitimate son of William Franklin who served as royal governor of New Jersey. It is true that Temple Franklin enjoyed the privilege of having grown up under the protection of the famous doctor. But mentally his life was tormented as a result of the estrangement between the royalist father and the revolutionary grandfather. Eventually he became a spoiled Philadel- phia dandy with little achievement of his own.1 This obscure figure, however, had a place in American history because he published his grandfather's works in London during the late 1810s. For the general public, the text of Franklin's autobiography as it appeared in Temple Franklin's edition remained authentic for half a century until John Bigelow's new edition appeared in 1868. Unfortunately, even this accomplishment of Temple Franklin was marred by contemporaries' suspicions that he had been bribed by the British government to prevent the publication of his grandfather's papers. After many de- cades, indeed until the beginning of this century, no conclusive evi- This note originates from a segment of my Ph.D. dissertation at Cornell University, "Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and Culture, 1790-1938." I am deeply indebted to Professor Michael Kammen for directing that project. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Roy Goodman for their comments and criticism about this piece. Its final revisions were made possible by a research grant from the American Philosophical Society. 1 The most recent discussion of Temple Franklin's life is Claude-Anne Lopez, "On the Trail of the Last Franklin: 1. Who Was Temple? 2. Who Knew What?" Franklin Gazette (A Publication of the Friends of Franklin, Philadelphia), vol. 2 (Summer 1991), 3, and vol. 2 (Fall 1991), 3. THE PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY & BIOGRAPHY Vol. CXVI, No. 2 (April 1992) 214 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS July dence proved or disproved the theory that Temple Franklin was bribed.2 Based on more recent scholarship, the present note recon- structs the circumstances under which the rumor emerged and clarifies this controversial episode of Temple Franklin's life. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790. Almost immediately, the publication of his works, particularly his memoirs, later known as the autobiography, attracted public attention. Within a month after his death, the Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine began to publish Henry Stuber's serialized "History of the Life and Character of Benjamin Franklin." Two months later Mathew Carey, in his American Museum, issued the "Memoirs of the Late Benjamin Frank- lin."3 It was in this piece that Carey informed the public that the doctor had written an account of his own life.4 Although few people could then have predicted that this account by Franklin of his own life would one day become the single most popular work of all of his writings, let alone a masterpiece of American literature, many were inclined to think that the doctor's autobiography could be one of his very important legacies. In any event, precisely because of the public's reverence for the doctor as well as their knowledge about the existence of his autobiography, they now eagerly anticipated the publication of his works. From Franklin's publicized will, people also learned that his grand- son, William Temple Franklin, inherited his papers and manuscripts and would thus become his literary executor.5 Claiming that he would publish the grandfather's works as soon as he could, Temple Franklin nonetheless sold Franklin's library and> left the country for England before the end of 1790. For the next twenty years he failed to publish 2 For instance, W. MacDonald reiterates the charge in his introduction to Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (London, 1908) which was reprinted at least six times until the 1920s. 3 For a detailed examination of early publications concerning Franklin's life and memoirs, see J. A. Leo Lemay and P. M. Zall, eds., The Autobiography oj Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text (Knoxville, 1981), xlviii-lviii. 4 Some of Franklin's friends already knew his plans. Thomas Jefferson recalled in his autobiography that "since [Franklin's] return to America [from France in 1785], he had been preoccupied in preparing for the world the history of his own life." Merrill D. Peterson, ed., Thomas Jefferson: Writings (New York, 1984), 99. 5 Pennsylvania Mercury and Universal Advertiser, May 20, 1790; Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser, May 22, 1790. 1991 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 215 anything. This inaction not only caused deep concern about the fate of one of the nation's most treasured literary assets, it also led to various speculations about the grandson's integrity. The uneasiness of Benjamin Franklin's admirers was further aggra- vated when foreign critics began to exploit the situation. In 1791 the first part of Franklin's memoirs was translated into French by Jacques Gilelin and published by Buisson of Paris. Handsomely bound in hard covers, the Buisson edition was a fine example of French craftsman- ship. The text was printed in fine types with generous margins, and the paper was exquisitely white, thin, and veined. Inside the lovely book, the publisher challenged the literary heir of the late doctor. He pointed out that the later part of Benjamin Franklin's career was closely connected to important political events which, to a large extent, had already made him well known to the general public. He therefore included in his volume "no more than the first period" of Franklin's life which, he claimed, the doctor's heirs might not have the courage to publish. "They will never," the French editor asserted, "be pre- vailed upon to narrate the humble details of his early days and the simple but interesting anecdotes of his origin, the obscurity of which, although it enhances the talents and the virtues of this great man, may yet wound their own vanity."6 Two years after the first French publication, in July 1793, two English editions appeared in London. Both were retranslations from the French edition. Two American editions were at last printed in 1794. After that numerous versions of Franklin's life were published almost annually on both sides of the Atlantic. Still, some people realized that none of the editions and reprints was based upon either the doctor's native tongue or his original manuscript. All were pirated translations or retranslations from the French. By the end of the century, in 1798, a new French collection of Franklin's writings was published in Paris. The translator, Jean-Henry Castera, also verbally raised his eyebrows by declaring, "It is not known why M. Benjamin Franklin Bache who has them [the memoirs and other papers] in his possession, and is now residing in London, keeps them so long from the public. The works of a great man belong less to his heirs than to 6 Quoted from John Bigclow, ed., The Life of Benjamin Franklin, 3 vols., (Philadelphia, 1874), 1: 41. 216 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS July the human race."7 Castera, of course, confused grandson Bache with grandson Franklin. In 1806 London publishers Johnson and Longman issued three volumes of Franklin's writings. This time, an open attack was waged against Temple Franklin. A prefatory advertisement asserted: The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them.8 When Francis Jeffrey (later Lord Jeffrey), the editor of the Edinburgh Review reviewed that edition in a long article, he disagreed with the accusation. He did complain, however, that "nothing, we think, can shew more clearly, the singular want of literary enterprize or activity, in the States of America, than that no one has yet been found in that flourishing republic, to collect and publish the works of their only philosopher."9 Jeffrey's review was reprinted and quoted a number of times in many publications throughout the United States.10 Perhaps it was in the mind of William Ellery Channing when in 1815 he la- mented the country's reputation for its lack of literary distinction. He particularly noted that only foreigners succeeded in compiling excel- lent selections of American writers—"thus England boasts the first and best editions of our own Franklin."11 Waiting for an authentic edition of Franklin's works exhausted the patience of potential readers, and frustration led some of them to blame Temple Franklin. In an article printed in a New York newspa- per James Cheetham went so far as to assert that William Temple Franklin, "without shame, without remorse, mean and mercenary, sold the sacred deposit, committed to his care by Dr. Franklin, to the 7 John Bigelow, ed., The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 12 vols., (New York, 1904), 1: vii. 8 Marshall and Vaughan, eds., The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin, 3 vols., (London, 1806), 1: viii-ix. 9 Edinburgh Review 8 (July 1806): 327. 10 See, for example, "Character of Dr. Franklin," The American Registery or. General Reposi- tory of History, Politics, & Science 1 (1806-1807): 150-159. 11 Channing, "Reflections on the Literary Delinquency of America," North American Review 2 (November 1815): 33. 1991 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 217 British government! —Franklin's works are therefore lost, lost to America, lost to the world!"12 About the same time, a similar charge was brought against Temple Franklin in the National Intelligencer of Washington.
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