75. The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin

Commonly known as The Autobiography, the Arion edition has been published in celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth. It is being published here under the title Franklin himself used in referring to his manuscript. Unpublished at the time of his death, it has since become the most widely read memoir of all time. In the Arion Press edition, this classic is letterpress printed from a new digital typeface with historical relevance for Franklin and the American Revolution.

Franklin’s Memoirs present with vividness the key episodes in a young man’s rise, from poor apprentice to prominent citizen. Its unifying theme is the lessons in behavior and morality he learns along the way. It has been accurately described as a conduct book, but it is a greatly entertaining one. The Memoirs bring Franklin the writer to life for the modern reader, as a storyteller of genius, who chooses just the right moment to laugh at himself.

This edition marks the first use of an historic American typeface, Binny & Ronaldson's Roman No. 1 (c. 1800), as recreated in digital form by Arion Press and named Aitken for Robert Aitken, the famous printer during the Revolution, and his daughter Jane Aitken, printer of the first American translation of the Bible (1808).

Read more about the Memoirs and the Arion Press edition:

• The Writing of the Memoirs
• The Lost Manuscript
• Benjamin Franklin, Printer
• The Arion Press Memoirs Text
• The Aitken Typeface

THE BOOK

The book consists of 188 pages. The format is octavo, 9 by 6.5 inches. The paper is Somerset Book, an all-cotton fiber English mouldmade paper. The frontispiece portrait of Franklin is adapted from the $100 bill, enlarged as required by law. The portrait and type are printed from photopolymer plates by letterpress. The binding is of full brown goatskin with gold titling on the spine and an oval silhouette of Franklin in profile, adapted from the postage stamp, on the front cover. Accompanying the book is a keepsake detailing the history of the discovery and acquisition of Franklin's lost manuscript by John Bigelow in Paris in 1867.

THE EDITION AND PRICE

The edition is limited to 400 numbered copies for sale and twenty-six lettered hors de commerce. The price is $600. Available.

Order securely online now:	Reserve now and pay offline:
	Reserve your copy

Go to title: 74. A Coney Island of the Mind    76. A Day in the Bleachers

Search Arion Press

Edition: 188 pages, 6-1/2 x 9 inches. Frontispiece portrait and type printed from photopolymer plates by letterpress. Binding: brown goatskin with gold titling on the spine and an oval silhouette of Franklin in profile on the front. With a keepsake detailing the discovery and acquisition of Franklin's lost manuscript. Edition limited to four hundred numbered copies for sale. Price: $600.

Order securely online now:

Reserve now and pay offline:

Reserve your copy