Book Review: My Life with Benjamin Franklin

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Book Review: Claude-Anne Lopez My Life with Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin lived an extraordinary life filling the roles of various occupations - writer, inventor, businessman, musician, scientist, and diplomat, but most importantly, he was one of the original founding fathers of this new nation. Claude-Anne Lopez transcribed over thirty thousand documents pertaining to Benjamin Franklin at Yale University, and published three literary works regarding Franklin’s personal life, family life, and in her final composition, My Life with Benjamin Franklin, revealing personal dimensions of Benjamin Franklin other scholars might have missed. Initially, Claude-Anne Lopez had no interest in Benjamin Franklin’s life. Lopez accepted the transcribing job mainly because it provided her a form of a “part-time job that could be done at home to keep an eye on [her kids] .” It was not until she began transcribing, understanding, and relating to the Franklin papers, when she began to speak favorably and admirably when she states that she was finally viewing Franklin as a fellow being instead of just an icon and was lucky to be surrounded by thousands of documents pertaining to Franklin. Claude-Anne Lopez divides her book into four different parts – Some Facets of Franklin’s Personality, Enigmas and Tricks, His Country’s Envoy, and Back at Home – to help reveal the little-known aspects of Benjamin Franklin’s life and personality. In part one, Lopez compares Franklin to other known leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini; acknowledges Franklin being the only founding father on the Hall of Fame for any sport (Franklin was on there for swimming) as well as his scientific accomplishments to interest adolescents; describes how his “vibrant relationships with a number of American, English, and French women,” viewing each of which as a unique personality has affected his writing
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