Page 16 - Stuart Exposure - March '21

Page 16, Stuart Exposure

Book revIew

Book Of Ages: The Life And Jane Franklin letter when she was 45 years old! (All the letters she had
Opinions Of Jane Franklin Born on March 27 – written before that time have been lost to history because
they were not considered important!)
1712
Edward Mecom This fact alone makes clear how incredibly diligent and
By Nils A. Shapiro Marryed to Jane thorough was the research for this book on the part of its
I am not one who Franklin the 27th of author, Jill Lepore, who is Professor of American History
generally makes it a point to July 1727 at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker
reread books I have already Through the magazine. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and
enjoyed a first time; there are years, she would a winner of the Bancroft Prize. Lepore studied Benjamin
so many new books being add many entries, Franklin’s letters, many of which refer to the content of his
published every day on including the births sister’s letters in his responses to them, which enabled the
subjects that interest me. But of 12 children and author to determine much of what Jane wrote.
while watching on television the deaths of 11 of Adding enormously both to the pleasure and the
the recent inauguration of them. Hers was not information in Book of Ages is the unusually extensive
the first woman to hold the an easy life, but one 162-page reference section that follows the almost 300-
office of Vice President of the that participated in page history that is the heart of the book. While some will
United States, the historic import of the moment suddenly the great events of simply ignore this addendum, I found it fascinating. It
made me think of another woman I had read about several her time and our includes an explanation of Lepore’s methods and sources
years ago – one who had lived in a very different America. nation’s history. used to gather so many of the previously lost details of
I had been deeply touched by her story, had reviewed at the After serving as a printer and bookseller in Philadelphia, Jane Franklin’s life; a genealogy of the Franklin family
time a splendidly written biography of her in this column Benjamin had gone to England and lived there for decades dating back to 1665 (which is very helpful, since many of
and highly recommended it. I now read that book again during the colonial period, developing his reputation there the children were named for parents, grandparents, etc.);
after finding it among the hundreds of volumes in my home (fathering a bastard son during that time) and returning home a detailed calendar of all the letters written by Jane and
office library and, after first intending to write a new review for visits only once every 10 years. His relationship with Jane, Benjamin, and others, from January 1727 to July 1793; a
comparing that woman’s very different circumstances to as loving and close as it truly was, was therefore limited to chapter about all of the books that Jane had in her home
today’s America, in which women are playing an ever- their two-way correspondence of hundreds of letters that were library, and how she obtained them; and, best of all, a
increasing role, I decided that my original review, presented carried by mutual friends across the Atlantic. remarkably comprehensive and helpful 90-page section of
here, has stood the test of time. Through these letters we become first-hand witnesses notes tied to footnotes from each chapter in the book (see
***** to the founding of our nation as she experienced them, an an example in the next paragraph), and an index.
When we learn history, it is almost always by reading average colonist in Boston: “the shot heard ‘round the world” Here is an example of the kind of information you will
about the events and lives of the most famous people of their that lit the flame of the Revolution; the mob of colonists find by turning to the notes section from time to time. In
times, and their achievements. There are rare exceptions, disguised as Mohawks who attacked the British ship in the Chapter 4, after the following sentences, there is a footnote
and I have reviewed one or two such books in past Review harbor to protest the tea tax, an event that became known as marked 8: “Men waged wars, but for women each birth was
columns; A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome comes to mind. the Tea Party; the secret meetings in taverns, the rumors of another battle. No woman dared imagine herself spared,
This month’s selection is another – a book I came upon uprisings, Paul Revere’s ride to warn of the British invasion, not by grace, not by wealth: pain was her portion. Even if
strictly by chance while browsing through a local bookstore, and much more. Jane wrote to her brother of all that was she survived childbirth, she could scarcely expect that her
which is where I discovered what turned out to be this happening around her, and her fear of the coming war. child would.”
remarkable literary treasure. Across the Atlantic, Benjamin – though acclaimed and So I turned to the notes section at the back of the book,
What led me to select it from the thousands of other celebrated in England over a period of many years – was to number 8 under Chapter 4, and this is what I found: “On
volumes on this store’s shelves I have no idea. I had never now sending secret messages of his own to contacts in the average, an eighteenth-century white woman could expect
heard of the book, nor of the woman whose life story it colonies, providing valuable information about the king’s to become pregnant between five and ten times, to give
tells. Indeed, I never even knew that Benjamin Franklin military plans, until one of his messages was intercepted by birth to between five and seven live children. Mary Beth
had a sister! a traitor and he was deported from England. In the colonies, Norton, Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience
But that fact did surprise and intrigue me. And the excerpts his own son, the Governor of New Jersey, continued to be of American Women, 1750-1800 (Boston: Little, Brown,
of glowing reviews on the back cover, together with the fact a Royalist who protested against the Revolution and was 1980), 72.” I found that extra fact quite interesting.
that the book was a finalist for the coveted National Book eventually branded a traitor to the new nation. With unanimous praise from reviewers who described
Award when published in 2013, was enough to convince me Perhaps the most striking, and saddest, example of the this book as “luminous,” “marvelous,” “fantastic,” and
to make the purchase. And so, Book of Ages came home with difference in Benjamin’s and Jane’s status is the fact that “eloquent,” perhaps The Washington Post said it best: “We
me, where it has rested among my personal library shelves hundreds of Benjamin Franklin’s letters are preserved may know about Jane Franklin only because of her famous
ever since, almost forgotten … until I scanned my collection in archives and are worth fortunes today, whereas the brother, but he is not why she matters.”
for a book to consider for this review column. first letter from Jane that survives is one she wrote not And Time Magazine said, “Jane Franklin’s indomitable
The result is one of the most compelling, most emotionally to her brother but to his wife (who had stayed behind in voice and hungry, searching intellect shine through these pages;
moving, most impressive works of history I have ever had Philadelphia, did not see Benjamin for years at a time, she will not be forgotten, and the world is richer for it.”
the good fortune to experience. More than once, as I finished and died while he was still in England); Jane wrote that Read this book. You will be richer for it.
a chapter, I put this book down for a few minutes and simply
sat quietly, pondering with a deep empathy the life of Jane
Franklin, the youngest of her parents’ 17 children, seven girls Let us do the preparation for
and 10 boys. The youngest of her brothers was Benjamin,
who was six years older than her. Jenny and Benny (as they
were called) would be close, caring and adoring brother and your holiday meal!
sister for all their lives, into old age, the last of their family
to survive. But that is the only thing they had in common.
Benjamin, who left home at the age of 15 and did not Dine-in • Takeout • Curbside
return for decades, would come to be revered throughout
the world as statesman, philosopher, scientist, author,
businessman, man of letters, governor, our nation’s first
diplomat – a signer of the Declaration of Independence and
Constitution – while Jane would marry at 15 a man who
failed at everything, borrowed his way into debtors’ prison
and eventually went mad. She bore 12 children and buried
11 of them. Because she was a woman in the 1700s, Jane
was taught to read so that she could pray in church, but was
not taught to write because women of her day were taught
instead to cook, sew, and learn other appropriate household
duties.
However, Jane was intelligent. She taught herself to
write by sounding out the words, so she wrote phonetically,
and apologized for her poor spelling in almost every letter
she wrote. At one point she wanted her brother to know that See restaurant or website for Passover menu.
she admired how he had handled himself in an appearance
before the British Parliament. She wrote, “Yr. Ansurs to the
Parlement are thought by the best Judges to Exeed all that Or, make reservations to dine-in with us on
has been wrot on the subject, & being given in the manner Saturday, March 27 and Sunday March 28.
they were are a Proof they Proceeded from Prinsiple.”
The book’s title, Book of Ages, is taken from one that
Jane herself created, “the paper made from rags, soaked and Stuart
pulped and strained and dried. Her thread was made from
flax, and spun and twisted and dyed...” Its purpose was to 2504 SE Federal Hwy • (772) 287-6514
record dates: the births and deaths of her family. Her first
entries were of her husband and her own:
Edward Mecom Senr Born in December 1704