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The First American tells the unfinished story of his life and times in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Summary of the Book Left to his own devices as a child in a poor family, young Ben Franklin found solace in books and his curiosity. He was constantly questioning the way things worked around him, trying to understand the world. He left home at an early age and journeyed to Philadelphia where he would become a clerk. He eventually became shopkeeper and bookkeeper, but it was his constant inquisitiveness and his writings that would lead him to become known as a man of letters. In this unfinished account of his life, Franklin writes of how he encountered the very men who would join him in drafting the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. A versatile genius and one of the most intelligent men of his time, the First American takes readers on a journey through his life, a magical journey that has immortalized his name in physics and politics forever. About Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath, writer, scholar, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster and inventor. He was also one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and is largely considered to be the “First American”. He is known for inventing the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove and for his role as a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.