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Benjamin Franklin: Book burner
Posted by Arun on 2010/03/06
I just love Benjamin Franklin, not just because of the great things that he did or invented, but the little things. Turning a genius mind to the invention of the stove, or to turkey as the emblem of the US...it's those things that appeal to me. I am about to take up a Visiting Professor gig at the State University of New York (leaving in a few hours in fact)until Christmas, and naturally enough reading up on a few things American. I was amazed to read (in Bradbury's book of last weeks' post) that Franklin was a book burner. I have to say I felt a pang! In 1790 it was. It was a matter of purging the new nation of all British or British-influenced books, but it was still book burning. I am just a little saddened by this flaw in my hero. This was not the only extreme anti-British action of his...he disowned his son for remaining loyal to Britain. That was not in Bradbury's book; I read that somewhere else. Isn't it strange though to think that I knew that fact about the great man but I never commented on it because somehow I understand that this sort of thing happens in families in times of conflict? But the book burning...that stuck in my mind and I do comment on that. So I accept the fallings out between people but get all upset if books are not considered as being above all such considerations and preserved properly? Are my proprities skewed?
Have been really heartened by the last few weeks' responses to my posts, which I am always glad to receive. The next post will be from good old New York.
Have been really heartened by the last few weeks' responses to my posts, which I am always glad to receive. The next post will be from good old New York.
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