At the age of twenty-two, Benjamin Franklin wrote his own epitaph. Scientist, inventor, and statesman, and the only man who would sign the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the treaty with France that helped win the Revolutionary War, and the treaty with England that ended it, wanted to be remembered simply as "B. Franklin, printer".

Franklin knew that words had enormous power. When he could not write his own words freely, he left his brother's print shop, moving from Boston to New York at the age of seventeen to strike out on his own. David A. Adler tells of Franklin's growth into a true renaissance man who helped pull thirteen disjointed colonies into one union -- the United States. Franklin's wit, inventiveness, and courage helped to mold a nation that would later remember him as one of its greatest founding fathers. Interesting facts about Franklin are included along with an index, bibliography, and chronology.