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. |
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... never sent. Infuriated by fellow peace commissioner Arthur Lee's constant carping, he addressed him as paranoid, an extreme “proud and angry man” with a “Sick Mind which is forever Tormenting itself with its Jealousies, Suspicions and ...
... never in the wrong.” He also told a recent saying by the Duchess de la Ferté, who, “in a little dispute with her Sister, said, 'I don't know how it happens, Sister, but I meet with nobody but myself who's always in the right.'” John ...
... never said it, he is blamed for the smart saying about hanging together or hanging separately. Other such sayings, less well known but more worthy, now surface on the World Wide Web— “Quacks were the greatest lyars in the world—except ...
... never be visited again until the return of the milder season. That on the first practicable day in the spring a boat put off to them with fresh supplies. The boatman met at the door one of the Keepers and accosted him with a, How goes ...
... never spoken to or seen one another since.” 30 Benjamin Franklin shaped his own image through his impersonations in “The Way to Wealth,” the autobiography, and his familiar letters, but like Jefferson, James Madison also helped by ...
Índice
Philadelphias Poor Richard | |
Philadelphia Comic Relief | |
Making Friends Overseas | |
Losing London | |
Seducing Paris | |
Comic Release | |
Revising Past and Future | |
Notes | |
Index | |