Ben_Franklin

Ben Franklin Ben Franklin was born in 1706 at Boston. He was the tenth son of a soap and candlemaker. He received some formal education but was principally self-taught. After serving an apprenticeship to his father between the ages of 10 and 12, he went to work for his half-brother James, a printer. In 1721 the latter founded the New England Courant, the fourth newspaper in the colonies. Benjamin secretly contributed 14 essays to it, his first published writings. In 1723, because of dissension with his half-brother, Franklin moved to Philadelphia, where he obtained employment as a printer. He spent only a year there and then sailed to London for 2 more years. Back in Philadelphia, he rose rapidly in the printing industry. He published The Pennsylvania Gazette (1730-48), which had been founded by another man in 1728, but his most successful literary venture was the annual Poor Richard 's Almanac (1733-58). It won popularity in the colonies second only to the Bible, and its fame eventually spread to Europe. Meantime, in 1730 Franklin had taken a common-law wife, Deborah Read, who was to bear him a son and daughter, and he also apparently had children with another nameless woman out of franklin, ben, pennsylvania, philadelphia, years, until, during, congress, colonies, colonial, stamp, served, published, proprietary, president, postmaster, new, london, independence, home, first, energetic, act, year, working, while, war, time, subsequently, son, royal, rest, repeal, purpose, provincial, printer, prestige, politics, political, party, over, member, life, led, latter, later, john, half-brother, general, france, founded, family