Benjamin Franklin

This fully documented account of ' the first American' gives a detailed and lively picture of the writer who invented the lightning conductor; the politician who spent years as emissary in London trying to prevent the American War of Independence; the statesman who, when war came, served as the United States representative in Paris, intriguing for French aid and American victory. In a series of masterly chapters Ronald Clark unravels the story of the successful printer and publisher whose electrical research brought him membership of the Royal Society, whose lobbying work played a part in the repeal of the notorious Stamp Act - one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the author and printer of Poor Richard's Almanack.