American Literature in the Age of Reason

Most of the literature written in America during the Age of Reason was, understandably, rooted in reality rather than in the imagination. The best minds of this period were concentrating on social, political, and scientific improvements. This was an age of pamphlets, since most literature was intended to serve practical or political ends. Relations—and ultimately war—-with England were major concerns for many years; following the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the problems of organizing and governing the new nation were of the highest importance. The Federalist Papers, written by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, may be thought of as the pamphlet form elevated to the highest level. These essays explain the ideas behind American Constitution.

With a few exceptions, American poetry written during the eighteenth century was unoriginal. It was often written in direct imitation of British models. Thousands of broadsides the poetic equivalent of pamphlets, were produced during this period. These poems and ballads printed on a single, large sheet of paper often ridiculed the British and urged Americans to take political action. They encouraged readers to drink no English tea, to wear domestically produced cloth, and, ultimately, to fight for liberty.

The unquestioned masterpiece of the American Age of Reason was Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Franklin used the personal narrative, a form that was common in Colonial America. He separated it from much of its religious Justification (the Puritan impulse toward self-examination). Then he molded it into what became a classic American pattern: the rags-to- riches story. Written in clear, witty prose, this charming account of the development of a self- made American provided the model for a story that would be told again and again. It appears in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.

With the exception of Franklin's Autobiography, however, the many calls for an American literary independence to accompany its political independence were premature. The seeds had been sown, but the true flowering of American literature was still several generations in the future.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

In many ways, Benjamin Franklin's life is the classic American success story—the tale of a self-made man who rose from poverty to eminence through his own industry and intelligence. one of seventeen children of a Boston candle and soap maker, Franklin had to leave school early in order to work. At twelve, he was apprenticed to his older brother James, a printer; at seventeen, chafing under the yoke of this apprenticeship, Ben journeyed to Philadelphia to seek his fortune. By the time he was twenty-four, he was a prosperous merchant, owner of a successful print shop, and publisher of the Philadelphia Gazette.

Few people have been so energetically devoted to improvement—both self-improvement and the improvement of society. Franklin's many accomplishments can only be summarized. He helped to found the American Philosophical Society, the University of Pennsylvania, and the first public library in America. He promoted numerous municipal projects in Philadelphia: paving streets, installing sewer lines, improving street lighting, and establishing a fire brigade. He was a scientist and an important inventor: his research, especially on electricity, resulted in his election to England's Royal Society. In addition, he invented an open heating stove (called a Franklin stove), bifocal eyeglasses, a musical instrument that used moistened glasses, and a rocking chair that could swat flies. Like Thomas Jefferson and many others of his age, Franklin was a tinkerer constantly looking for ways to make things work a little better or more efficiently.

At forty-one. Franklin had made enough money to retire from business. He hoped to devote the rest of his life to study and scientific research, but this was not to be. Franklin possessed uncommon talents as a diplomat and negotiator, and for the rest of his life he used these skills in the service of his state and his country. As an agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Franklin lived in London in the 1750's, representing the interests of Pennsylvania. A decade later he was back in London lobbying for the Colonies in their dispute with Britain, hoping to bring about a reconciliation that would prevent war. Franklin's wit and charm made him enormously popular in London for many years; he once said that he was invited out to dinner there six nights a week. But by 1774, when he was sixty-eight, the stress between Britain and the Colonies had become too great for even this consummate diplomat to control. He was publicly attacked by the King's Privy Council for his policies; the British press called him an "old snake." Franklin finally relinquished his hopes for peace and sailed for America in 1775.

When Franklin arrived home, he was greeted with the news that the first battles in the Revolutionary War had been fought at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The shot had been fired that "was heard around the world." After helping to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Franklin left for Paris to negotiate the treaty that brought the French into the war on America's side. When Franklin landed in France, Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, caustically remarked: "I look upon him as a dangerous engine, and am very sorry that some British frigate did not meet with him by the way."

In Paris, Franklin was even more popular than he had once been in England. Playing the role of the sophisticated but homespun American, Franklin described himself as "an old man, with gray hair appearing under a marten fur cap, among the powdered heads of Paris." When the Revolution was over, he helped to negotiate the peace, and he was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. His death three years later was the occasion for international mourning. Franklin's practicality, like the success story of his life, is typically American.

Franklin did lack a poet's depth of imagination and emotion, but his literary talents and accomplishments were substantial. He was especially gifted as a wit. The lightly ironic tone of much of his Autobiography testifies to this talent, as do many of the aphorisms in his Poor Richard's Almanack.

Franklin has become famous as the political figure and satirist - lampoonist. He conducted vigorous strife with greedy English colonial administration, fearlessly unmasked corruption, outrage and violence, made in the American colonies by the royal generals and governors, aggressively defending interests of the Americans.

Most considerable political and philosophical works of B. Franklin are “The Historical Aspect of the Constitution and Administration in Pennsylvania”, 1759; "The Way to Wealth”, 1757; "The Autobiography”, 1790). Large popularity used in XVIII the following satirical pamphlets of Franklin: " How of great empire to make the small state " (1773); " Of slave-trade " (1790); " Of sendings of the criminals to colonies " (1768), etc.