The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

By: Benjamin Franklin

Narrated by: Bill DeWees

One of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin himself from 1771 to 1790. Franklin's account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods at which he wrote them.

Part One of the autobiography is addressed to Franklin's son William, at that time (1771) the Royal Governor of New Jersey. Part Two begins with two letters Franklin received in the early 1780s while in Paris, encouraging him to continue the autobiography, of which both correspondents have read Part One. In Part Three, beginning in August 1788 Franklin tells about his religious writings, newspaper publications, various inventions and his involvement with the Indian militia against the French government. Franklin studies languages, reconciles with his brother James, and loses a four-year-old son to smallpox. Written sometime between November 1789 and Franklin's death on April 17, 1790, Part Four is very brief; it describes his return to London with his son.

This audiobooks begins with "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau.

Public Domain (P)2010 Hudson Audio Publishing

Mistitled. This is Thoreau's 1849 essay "Resistance to Civil Government".

While they may share similar outlooks, they weren't even contemporaries. Thoreau was born 27 years after Franklin's passing.
EDIT - stand corrected - first chapter is the essay by Thoreau. Then the Franklin book starts. Odd.