# Is "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin)" by Benjamin Franklin a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin) by Benjamin Franklin (Buisson, Paris, 1791) is identified by: Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791. The true first is the French Buisson edition of 1791, and the census is correct: there is no earlier English printing, and this is one of the classic cases of an American author's masterwork appearing first in translation.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791
- Octavo, two parts in one volume, in French, translated by Jacques Gibelin (the attribution is Quérard's) from one of the manuscript fair copies Franklin had sent to friends in France
- The first-printing tell is a paging fault present in every recorded copy: the four final text pages, 204-207, are misnumbered 360-363 — Bauman's cataloguing calls the mispagination of the four final text pages 'as always,' and James Cummins gives the numbers
- The full title continues '...Écrits par lui-même, et adressés à son fils; suivis d'un précis historique de sa vie politique, et de plusieurs pièces, relatives à ce père de la liberté'; only the first portion is Franklin's own memoir, carrying the narrative to 1731 and comprising the first two parts he drafted at Twyford in 1771
- Expected dress is contemporary French mottled or half calf, spine gilt
- No number line, edition statement, printed price or dust jacket applies to the period
- Publisher imprint reads Buisson, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Benjamin Franklin |
| Publisher | Buisson, Paris |
| Year | 1791 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791. Octavo, two parts in one volume, in French, translated by Jacques Gibelin (the attribution is Quérard's) from one of the manuscript fair copies Franklin had sent to friends in France. The first-printing tell is a paging fault present in every recorded copy: the four final text pages, 204-207, are misnumbered 360-363 — Bauman's cataloguing calls the mispagination of the four final text pages 'as always,' and James Cummins gives the numbers. The full title continues '...Écrits par lui-même, et adressés à son fils; suivis d'un précis historique de sa vie politique, et de plusieurs pièces, relatives à ce père de la liberté'; only the first portion is Franklin's own memoir, carrying the narrative to 1731 and comprising the first two parts he drafted at Twyford in 1771. Expected dress is contemporary French mottled or half calf, spine gilt. No number line, edition statement, printed price or dust jacket applies to the period. References: Ford 383; Howes F323; Sabin 25549; Grolier American 100, 21.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the French Buisson edition of 1791, and the census is correct: there is no earlier English printing, and this is one of the classic cases of an American author's masterwork appearing first in translation. The first English-language appearance is 'The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D.... Originally written by himself, and now translated from the French' (London: printed for J. Parsons, 1793) — not Franklin's English, but a retranslation of Gibelin's French back into English, credited to Alexander Stevens; the first American edition (1794) descends from the same retranslated text. A collection that wants both the original-language first and the first in English takes the 1791 Buisson and the 1793 Parsons. A third landmark is separate again: John Bigelow's edition (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1868), set from Franklin's own holograph manuscript, is the first appearance of the authentic English text, the first English publication of all four parts, and the first printing of the 'outline.' William Temple Franklin's 1818 edition and every English printing before 1868 carry the corrupted retranslated text.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue applies to the 1791 Buisson printing. The recurring hazards are 'first thus' traps rather than club editions: the 1793 Parsons London and 1794 American editions are sometimes offered as the 'first edition of the Autobiography' when they are retranslations; the Bigelow 1868 is correctly the first complete and authentic English text but is not the first edition of the work; and the 1818 Temple Franklin is neither. Modern facsimiles and print-on-demand copies of the 1791 show machine-made paper, photographic type and a modern imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin)* by Benjamin Franklin a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin-m-moires-de-la-vie-pr
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.