A website from the Massachusetts Historical Society; founded 1791.

Detail image of the first page of the 17-24 September 1722 issue of The New-England Courant. This issue featured Silence Dogood essay 13 about "Moon-light evenings" in Boston; click here to view the online presentation of this issue.

Benjamin Franklin—Readings List

Suggestions for Further Reading:


Brands, H. W. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Anchor Books, 2002.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959- (37 vols. to date). 

Frankin, Benjamin. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin [online] [http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/]. Sponsored by The American Philosophical Society and Yale University.

Franklin, Benjamin, J. A. Leo Lemay, and P. M. Zall. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981.

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Lemay, J. A. Leo. The Life of Benjamin Franklin. Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Lemay, J. A. Leo. The Life of Benjamin Franklin. Volume 2: Printer and Publisher 1730-1747. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Morgan, Edmund S. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Wood, Gordon. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.

Additional online items (forthcoming):

To see online presentations of items from the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society please examine our browse list of selections about Benjamin Franklin.