To bring to life on paper the many-sided genius of Benjamin Franklin is a challenging task. Miss Eaton has succeeded brilliantly in presenting as a man, "humorous and quiet-spoken," this great American who, beginning as a printer, became also journalist, author, physicist, soldier, inventor, and statesman.

His minor accomplishments were almost as amazing as the indispensable services he rendered his country. He was the first to *** type in America, to *** copperplate press, to start a lending library and a volunteer fire company in Philadelphia, and to make the post office pay. He invented not only lightning rods but the first iron stove.

When he was a young man the girls liked him for the mischief in his eyes and the boys because he asked their opinions about everything. Years later, as a heavily burdened statesman, he drew up from the depths of himself "a kind of merry calm".

His deeds in London on behalf of the American colonies and in Paris for the young nation brought him fame which he wore "as if it were an ordinary thing, like a waistcoat." The calumny attending fame he endured philosophically, "unconcerned about ill-placed blame."

His unfailing enjoyment of life glows upon the pages of this book.

From the dust jacket