The First American
Anchor Books
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
In this Pulitzer Prize Finalist, discover/rediscover Benjamin Franklin, the eighteenth century genius, who transformed from a penniless runaway to become one of the world's most admired figures.
The First American, according to Library Journal's starred review, is "eminently readable...an absorbing portrait of...America's multidimensional journalist, inventor, diplomat, propagandist, moralist, humorist, and revolutionary."
From Chapter IIX:
Franklin appreciated the recognition that came with his growing scientific reputation [1748 - 1751], but there were times when he preferred anonymity. This preference had given birth to Silence Dogood; so also to Martha Careful and Caelia Shortface. None of these worthy women, however, became as famous as Polly Baker, who in the late 1740s embarked on a transatlantic career that for a time outshone Franklin's own.
