Benjamin Franklin's HumorUniversity Press of Kentucky, 01/12/2005 - 200 páginas Although he called himself merely a "printer" in his will, Benjamin Franklin could have also called himself a diplomat, a doctor, an electrician, a frontier general, an inventor, a journalist, a legislator, a librarian, a magistrate, a postmaster, a promoter, a publisher—and a humorist. John Adams wrote of Franklin, "He had wit at will. He had humor that when he pleased was pleasant and delightful... [and] talents for irony, allegory, and fable, that he could adapt with great skill, to the promotion of moral and political truth." In Benjamin Franklin's Humor, author Paul M. Zall shows how one of America's founding fathers used humor to further both personal and national interests. Early in his career, Franklin impersonated the feisty widow Silence Dogood in a series of comically moralistic essays that helped his brother James outpace competitors in Boston's incipient newspaper market. In the mid-eighteenth century, he displayed his talent for comic impersonation in numerous editions of Poor Richard's Almanac, a series of pocket-sized tomes filled with proverbs and witticisms that were later compiled in Franklin's The Way to Wealth (1758), one of America's all-time bestselling books. Benjamin Franklin was sure to be remembered for his early work as an author, printer, and inventor, but his accomplishments as a statesman later in life firmly secured his lofty stature in American history. Zall shows how Franklin employed humor to achieve desired ends during even the most difficult diplomatic situations: while helping draft the Declaration of Independence, while securing France's support for the American Revolution, while brokering the treaty with England to end the War for Independence, and while mediating disputes at the Constitutional Convention. He supervised and facilitated the birth of a nation with customary wit and aplomb. Zall traces the development of an acute sense of humor throughout the life of a great American. Franklin valued humor not as an end in itself but as a means to gain a competitive edge, disseminate information, or promote a program. Early in life, he wrote about timely topics in an effort to reach a mass reading class, leaving an amusing record of early American culture. Later, Franklin directed his talents toward serving his country. Regardless of its origin, the best of Benjamin Franklin's humor transcends its initial purpose and continues to evoke undying laughter at shared human experiences. |
No interior do livro
Resultados 1-5 de 16
... living, as prototype of American Puritans. Single mother Polly Baker, prosecuted for having five babies out of wedlock, won acquittal and a husband among the judges on the bench. Franklin's impersonation was so effective that historians ...
... called compromise the cost of living with human nature controlled by men's “Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their selfish Views.” 23 In that speech, Franklin could still draw upon the old- ...
... Living was utterly inconsistent with my Circumstances, but had not Resolution enough to help it. Till lately, receiving a very severe Dun, which mention'd the next Court, I began in earnest to project Relief. Last Monday my Dear went ...
... Living, when we please, if Dad will be at the Expence of it. [10 July 1732] A fortnight later, Celia Single complains about Afterwit's letter with such heat that the editor says he had to censor “Circumstances of her Letter, which point ...
... Living? Pray, says she, (somewhat fiercely, and dashing the Puff into the Powder-Box) don't use me after this Manner, for I assure you I won't bear it. This is the Fruit of your poison News-papers; there shall come no more here, I ...
Índice
Philadelphias Poor Richard | |
Philadelphia Comic Relief | |
Making Friends Overseas | |
Losing London | |
Seducing Paris | |
Comic Release | |
Revising Past and Future | |
Notes | |
Index | |