The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - News and Biography

Author: Benjamin Franklin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Since then, I have always taken pleasure in observing how skilled craftsmen use their tools, and I have benefited greatly from it: when there was some small household chore at home and I couldn’t find a craftsman at the moment, I relied on the little I had learned to do it myself; when I was enthusiastic and wanted to make some small machines for experiments, I also did it myself.
My father finally decided to let me pursue the craft of making knives and followed Benjamin, the son of my uncle Benjamin. He learned this trade in London, and it was probably around that time that he opened a business in Boston. I spent some time as an apprentice there, but he charged an apprentice fee, which displeased my father, and he took me home.
As a child, I loved reading and always spent my money on books. Because I enjoyed reading The Pilgrim’s Progress, I purchased a collection of Bunyan’s works as a single volume. Later, I sold it because I needed money to buy Richard Burton’s Historical Collections. This work consisted of over forty or fifty volumes, but it was sold by a bookseller at a very low price. My father had a small library, most of which was filled with theological debates, and I read most of them. To this day, I still regret that I was in a period of intense curiosity but had no suitable books to read, because I knew very well that I would not become a minister.
However, I did repeatedly read Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, and to this day, I believe that spending a lot of time reading that book was very beneficial to me. In addition, Daniel Defoe’s Of Projectors and Dr. Maathew’s Of Doing Good—these two books once changed my thinking, and my thoughts were also influenced by them in later significant events.
My father already had a son, James Franklin, studying the printing trade, and my love for reading finally led him to decide that I should also take up this profession. In 1717, my brother James returned from England, bringing back a printing press and many types, and he started a printing business in Boston himself. I loved this trade more than my father’s candle business, but I still longed for the sea. To prevent this desire from having terrible consequences, my father eagerly wanted to tie my heart to my brother’s printing trade. I resisted for a while, but I finally listened to his advice and signed a contract when I was only twelve years old.
According to the contract, as an apprentice, I had to work until I was twenty-one years old and could only receive the full apprentice’s wage in the last year of my apprenticeship. I quickly became proficient in the printing business and became my brother’s trusted assistant.
At this time, I also had the opportunity to read the good books I wanted. I made friends with some apprentices who worked in several bookstores, and I could borrow some books from them, but I had to return them on time and keep them in good condition. Sometimes, if I borrowed a book in the evening, I would read it by candlelight until late at night, and I would return it the next morning, or else people would think the book was lost or missing.