Benjamin Franklin's Reading List
The 5 books that shaped Benjamin Franklin — polymath & founding father.
Printer, scientist, diplomat, and inventor whose curiosity knew no bounds and whose autobiography invented the self-help genre.
Influential Books
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin(1791)
Franklin's unfinished autobiography — the original self-improvement manual and the birth of the American success story.
The Spectator
Joseph Addison, Richard Steele(1711)
Franklin taught himself to write by studying Addison's essays — rewriting them from memory to improve his prose.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke(1689)
Locke's empiricism shaped Franklin's practical, evidence-based approach to science, politics, and life.
Plutarch's Lives
Plutarch(100)
Franklin read Plutarch as a boy and modeled his public life on the classical ideals of civic virtue.
Poor Richard's Almanack
Benjamin Franklin(1732)
Franklin's annual publication of proverbs, weather, and wit — "Early to bed, early to rise" became American gospel.