Read Online A Benjamin Franklin Reader by Walter Isaacson - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Walter Isaacson
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again; when perhaps, it may not be a pin matter whether they ever do or no. As I have not observed the critics to be more favorable on this account, I shall always avoid saying any thing of the kind; and conclude with telling you, that if you send me a bottle of ink and a quire of paper by the bearer, you may depend on hearing further from Sir, Your most humble Servant,
The Busy-Body
Franklin the Editor
The excitable Keimer responded with limp doggerel: “With scornful eye, I see your hate, / And pity your unhappy fate.” But Keimer was soon driven out of business, and fled to Barbados. On the way to the boat he sold his paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, to Franklin in October 1729.
There are many types of newspaper editors. Some are crusading ideologues who are blessed with strong opinions, partisan passions, or a desire to bring low authority. Benjamin’s brother James was in this category. Some are the opposite: they like power and their proximity to it, are comfortable with the established order and feel vested in it. The Philadelphia printer Andrew Bradford was such.
And then there are those who are charmed and amused by the world, and delight in charming and amusing others. They tend to be skeptical of both orthodoxies and heresies, and they are earnest in their desire to seek truth and promote public betterment (as well as sell papers). There fits Franklin. He was graced—and afflicted—with the trait so common to journalists, especially ones who have read Swift and Addison once too often, of wanting to participate in the world while also remaining a detached observer. As a journalist he could step out of a scene, even one that passionately engaged him, and comment on it, or on himself, with a droll irony. The depths of his beliefs were often concealed by his knack of engaging in a knowing wink, as was evident in the first editorial he wrote.
T HE P ENNSYLVANIA G AZETTE , O CTOBER 2, 1729
The Printer to the Reader.
The Pennsylvania Gazette being now to be carried on by other hands, the reader may expect some account of the method we design to proceed in.
There are many who have long desired to see a good newspaper in Pennsylvania; and we hope those gentlemen who are able, will contribute towards the making this such. We ask assistance, because we are fully sensible, that to publish a good news-paper is not so easy an undertaking as many people imagine it to be. The author of a gazette (in the opinion of the learned) ought to be qualified with an extensive acquaintance with languages, a great easiness and command of writing and relating things cleanly and intelligibly, and in few words; he should be able to speak of war both by land and sea; be well acquainted with geography, with the history of the time, with the several interests of princes and states, the secrets of courts, and the manners and customs of all nations. Men thus accomplished are very rare in this remote part of the world; and it would be well if the writer of these papers could make up among his friends what is wanting in himself.
Upon the whole, we may assure the public, that as far as the encouragement we meet with will enable us, no care and pains shall be omitted, that may make The Pennsylvania Gazette as agreeable and useful an entertainment as the nature of the thing will allow.
The Lessons of Misprints
In a classic canny maneuver, Franklin corrected an early typo—he had reported that someone “died” at a restaurant when he meant to say “dined” at it—by composing a letter from a fictitious “J.T.” that discoursed on other amusing misprints. For example, one edition of the Bible quoted David as saying he was “wonderfully mad” rather than “made,” which caused an “ignorant preacher to harangue his audience for half an hour on the subject of spiritual madness.” Franklin then went on (under the guise of J.T.) to praise Franklin’s own paper, point out a similar typo made by his rival Bradford, criticize
The Busy-Body
Franklin the Editor
The excitable Keimer responded with limp doggerel: “With scornful eye, I see your hate, / And pity your unhappy fate.” But Keimer was soon driven out of business, and fled to Barbados. On the way to the boat he sold his paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, to Franklin in October 1729.
There are many types of newspaper editors. Some are crusading ideologues who are blessed with strong opinions, partisan passions, or a desire to bring low authority. Benjamin’s brother James was in this category. Some are the opposite: they like power and their proximity to it, are comfortable with the established order and feel vested in it. The Philadelphia printer Andrew Bradford was such.
And then there are those who are charmed and amused by the world, and delight in charming and amusing others. They tend to be skeptical of both orthodoxies and heresies, and they are earnest in their desire to seek truth and promote public betterment (as well as sell papers). There fits Franklin. He was graced—and afflicted—with the trait so common to journalists, especially ones who have read Swift and Addison once too often, of wanting to participate in the world while also remaining a detached observer. As a journalist he could step out of a scene, even one that passionately engaged him, and comment on it, or on himself, with a droll irony. The depths of his beliefs were often concealed by his knack of engaging in a knowing wink, as was evident in the first editorial he wrote.
T HE P ENNSYLVANIA G AZETTE , O CTOBER 2, 1729
The Printer to the Reader.
The Pennsylvania Gazette being now to be carried on by other hands, the reader may expect some account of the method we design to proceed in.
There are many who have long desired to see a good newspaper in Pennsylvania; and we hope those gentlemen who are able, will contribute towards the making this such. We ask assistance, because we are fully sensible, that to publish a good news-paper is not so easy an undertaking as many people imagine it to be. The author of a gazette (in the opinion of the learned) ought to be qualified with an extensive acquaintance with languages, a great easiness and command of writing and relating things cleanly and intelligibly, and in few words; he should be able to speak of war both by land and sea; be well acquainted with geography, with the history of the time, with the several interests of princes and states, the secrets of courts, and the manners and customs of all nations. Men thus accomplished are very rare in this remote part of the world; and it would be well if the writer of these papers could make up among his friends what is wanting in himself.
Upon the whole, we may assure the public, that as far as the encouragement we meet with will enable us, no care and pains shall be omitted, that may make The Pennsylvania Gazette as agreeable and useful an entertainment as the nature of the thing will allow.
The Lessons of Misprints
In a classic canny maneuver, Franklin corrected an early typo—he had reported that someone “died” at a restaurant when he meant to say “dined” at it—by composing a letter from a fictitious “J.T.” that discoursed on other amusing misprints. For example, one edition of the Bible quoted David as saying he was “wonderfully mad” rather than “made,” which caused an “ignorant preacher to harangue his audience for half an hour on the subject of spiritual madness.” Franklin then went on (under the guise of J.T.) to praise Franklin’s own paper, point out a similar typo made by his rival Bradford, criticize
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