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"Ben Franklin"
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography: Page 67
of 154
hope, therefore, that you will listen to the prayer addressed to you in this
letter, I beg to subscribe myself, my dearest sir, etc., etc.,
"Signed, BENJ. VAUGHAN."
Continuation of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, near Paris, 1784.
It is some time since I receiv'd the above letters, but I have been too busy
till now to think of complying with the request they contain. It might, too, be
much better done if I were at home among my papers, which would aid my memory,
and help to ascertain dates; but my return being uncertain and having just now a
little leisure, I will endeavor to recollect and write what I can; if I live to
get home, it may there be corrected and improv'd.
Not having any copy here of what is already written, I know not whether an
account is given of the means I used to establish the Philadelphia public
library, which, from a small beginning, is now become so considerable, though I
remember to have come down to near the time of that transaction (1730). I will
therefore begin here with an account of it, which may be struck out if found to
have been already given.
At the time I establish'd myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good
bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York
and Philad'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only paper, etc.,
almanacs, ballads, and a few common school-books. Those who lov'd reading were
oblig'd to send for their books from England; the members of the Junto had each
a few. We had left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired a room to hold
our club in. I propos'd that we should all of us bring our books to that room,
where they would not only be ready to consult in our conferences, but become a
common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wish'd to read
at home. This was accordingly done, and for some time contented us.
Finding the advantage of this little collection, I propos'd to render the
benefit from books more common, by commencing a public subscription library. I
drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, and got a skilful
conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, to put the whole in form of articles of
agreement to be subscribed, by which each subscriber engag'd to pay a certain
sum down for the first purchase of books, and an annual contribution for
increasing them. So few were the readers at that time in Philadelphia, and the
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