DC Public Library System

Poor Richard's women, Deborah Read Franklin and the other women behind the Founding Father, Nancy Rubin Stuart

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-202) and index

individual biography

index present

non fiction

Poor Richard's women

bibliography

1275432317

Nancy Rubin Stuart

Deborah Read Franklin and the other women behind the Founding Father

"Poor Richard's women describes Deborah's common-law marriage to Ben Franklin and his romances with other women."--, Provided by publisherBenjamin Franklin: thrifty inventor, statesman of the Revolutionary era... lover of women. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for 44 years. An independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife, she raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint while he traipsed about England. Stuart also introduces us to Margaret Stevenson, the widowed landlady who managed Ben's life in London; Catherine Ray, the New Englander with whom he traveled overnight and later exchanged passionate letters; Madame Brillon, the French musician who flirted shamelessly with him, and the witty Madame Helvetius, who befriended the philosophes of pre-Revolutionary France and brought Ben to his knees. -- adapted from jacket

"A most awkward ridiculous appearance" -- "A man and not an angel" -- "Like a faithful pair of doves" -- "In the dark, all cats are grey" -- "Kisses in the wind" -- The ghost wife -- Home, but not in his heart -- "One continued state of suspense" -- "How i long to see you" -- "I desire that you may love me forever" -- "By the way, what did you do to that shoulder?" -- "Prudence is not your strongest point" -- "As long as we exist, you will not be abandoned" -- "We are apt to forget that we are grown old"

adult

Deborah Read Franklin and the other women behind the Founding Father