Makers of America: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln Astor (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Makers of America: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln Astor

Because of this love for books, his father finally put Benjamin, when he was twelve years old, to work with his brother James, who was a printer. Now there was more chance for the boy to read. He shrewdly made many friends among the apprentices of book sellers, and persuaded them to lend him books from their masters' shelves. By the light of a farthing candle, made in his father's shop, he often read one of these books through the night and far into the morn ing hours, that it might be returned to its place before the shops were opened.

Reading soon led to Benjamin's writing short poems, which his brother sent him to peddle in the streets of Boston; but his father put a stop to it by telling him plainly that poets were always beggars. About this time, there came into his hands a copy of the Spectator, an English paper that was soon to be famous. It was written by two men named Addison and Steele. He read it as he had read Plutarch's Lives; he patiently rewrote its essays in his own words, and then com pared them with the Spectator and corrected them. In this way he tried to learn to write clearly and well. At the same time he trained his mind by studying navigation, arithmetic and grammar.

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