Yes, Benjamin Franklin, one of the most important figures in American history had quite mischievous early years. It’s hard to picture one of the most ingenious people to ever have slipped into legendom as a neighborhood kid who led his group of friends into folly. Well many times that’s just what...

Well not quite. When he was 17 Ben Franklin had a falling out with his brother for whom he was apprenticing. Afterward, he resolved to run away from Boston to find employment in New York. Knowing that his family would try to stop him from leaving, he had to find a way to slip out of town undetected....

In Part 2 of his autobiography Ben Franklin includes letters from two of his friends who comment about the first part of his autobiography and encourage him to continue it to completion. The ideas in these letters seem to place the entire work into context and it seems that Franklin chose to include...