[MUSIC] Welcome back to our course on Benjamin Franklin. We've now gone through his life as a printer and writer from roughly when Franklin was 12 years old, an apprentice to his brother James all the way to his retirement from printing at the age of 42 when he hands over his printing empire to David Hall. All the while he is printing, Franklin is also writing, filling many of the items he actually prints. And Franklin's flair for writing is his first claim to fame. A Benjamin Franklin's writing raises interesting and frankly troubling questions about copying the writing and ideas of others. What we think of today as plagiarism. This copying the words of others starts early for Benjamin Franklin. As you may remember he copies and refines other authors' work as a way to teach himself to be a better writer. While he may not be a poet, he is tremendously skilled at making ideas more pithy and phrases more memorable. This is a talent that makes him a prosperous printer. As I mentioned earlier in the course, he thinks The Spectator is an excellent resource for his self-improvement writing exercises. This copying of others' writings is something that persists all of Franklin's life. His newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette is filled with articles borrowed from other newspapers and publication. He is often copying articles originally published in London in such journals as the London Journal or the Freethinker. Let's remember something about newspapers in the 18th century when Franklin is writing. There are no professional journalists, people are paid simply to record the news which leads to printers collecting and reproducing information from other newspapers to fill their own pages and columns. Printers treat competitors from newspapers the same way publishers today treat press releases. A story is published in London, reproduced in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the Caribbean. Very often printers like Franklin are waiting for the ships to arrive from London and Bristol, so, stories first published in Britain are reset and published in American colonial newspapers just a few months later. Now that newspapers have been digitized, we can easily track down how ideas and exact words and phrases spread from paper to paper. These reprints are a key ingredient and colonists' Anglo sizing as they are more attached to Britain than to their fellow colonies. Samuel Keimer, Franklin's first boss in Philadelphia plans to enlighten his readers by reproducing the entirety of an encyclopedia without permission of the very authors. Franklin uses and reworks British and Colonial News items to accommodate local needs and his own interest. Here's one example, he copies an English newspapers article on freemasonry in 1730, but he edits out references to members being idle. Seeing him therefore as a worthy ally, the free masons approved Franklin's membership soon after and back several of his ideas for civic improvements. Benjamin Franklin knows how to reuse publications to his own advantage. One of Franklin's favorite stories to reuse is about a printer who makes a typo, the printer leaves out the word not in one of the ten commandments. So it reads thou shalt commit adultery instead of though shall not commit adultery. Franklin lifts this story and reproduces it, but he neglects the footnote, The Spectator, and its authors, Addison and Steele. The few copyright laws that exist do not cover printers. Thus, printers see the information and ideas printed in other pages as fair game for reproduction. Benjamin Franklin does not just copy other newspapers to fill the empty columns of his newspaper or rely on the goings on in London. His Poor Richard's Almanack becomes one of colonial America's most widely sold publications. In some years, it's second only to the Bible in sales. And yet it's filled with the words and ideas he borrows from others. The Almanack is filled with sayings and stories that make Franklin famous, but they rarely stem from his original work or his original ideas. Franklin is the master of the art of rewording sayings lifted from other popular authors of the era. In the early years, the Almanack pages are filled with Franklin's re-crafting of James Howell's proverbs. They are rewritten, so they reflect the voice of the common people, free property owners who are below the rank of gentry. From 1745 to 1751, Franklin relies on books like Thomas Fuller's collection of Adages to fill empty spots in his almanack. Some comparisons between the original text and Franklin's reworded text, such as him changing necessity has no law to necessity has no law, I know some attorneys of the name. Or a small leak will sink great chips in the hands of Benjamin Franklin becomes aware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship. And then there's a glove cat can catch no mice, Franklin reworks it to say a cat in gloves catches no mice. As well as his reworking of do good to all that thou mayst keep thy friends and gain thy enemies. Franklin's reads, do good to thy friend to keep him to thy enemy to gain him. One of Franklin's best and most famous articles occurs in an early issue of the Almanack. The author, Richard Saunders predicts that Titan Leads, a competitive Almanack writer will die the following October, this is obviously a hoax. Franklin lists this hoax from the famed English writer, Jonathan Swift. We can just imagine Franklin weakening and smiling with his fellows while discussing passages in which he insists Leads will truly die despite leads his protest. As a noted literary scholar, Jack Lynch writes about this episode quote, and Swift, the fictional Isaac Bickerstaff taunts John Partridge a quack and Almanack writer by predicting his death and then pretending to disbelieve Partridge's protestations that he was still alive. Every element of Benjamin Franklin's sham comes straight from Swiss essays of a quarter century before and yet Franklin nowhere credits his source. Poor Richard's proverbs, borrowed and rewritten become widespread throughout the Atlantic world. These proverbs and little adages represent America's first literary voice. They are the expression of early America's middling sort of values and ideals. Leo LeMay, who was an English professor, renowned for his lifelong study and biography of Franklin called this style of copying and turning phrases into memorable aphorisms, quote the American aesthetic. It's important to note that the borrowing of published words went both ways. Many people borrowed Franklin's words and reproduce them too. For instance, Franklin's introduction in the 1758 almanack is entitled Father Abraham's speech. It compiles his borrowed proverbs. This text becomes extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic and printers reproduce it in their own almanack. In 1760, Father Abraham speech is anthologized into English author and features volumes of children's writing. And that's eventually translated into many other languages. So, when Franklin arrives in France in 1776, everyone has already read his words. Even after he becomes a revolutionary, Franklin's proverbs remain popular in Britain. The Way To Wealth as the original text becomes known remains Franklin's most famous work for years to follow and is republished by many different printers. Many who copy it continue to list the author as Richard Saunders or Poor Richard or Poor ****. Franklin does not receive royalties on the republications. Throughout his publishing career, Franklin shows little interest in intellectual property, his or that of others. He does not care if people lift from his writings. In fact, he brags about it. Consequently, one of the intriguing facts is that Franklin does not try to cover up his borrowing and polishing up of others' words. As you can see in this 1747 publisher statement quote, I know as well as the that I am no poet born and it is a trade I never learned, nor indeed could learn. If I make verses, it's in spite of nature and my stars, I write. Why then should I give my readers bad lines of my own when good ones of other peoples are so plenty? This raises the important question of whether Franklin was a plagiarist. We'll pick up with that question in our next segment. We'll talk about what people of the 18th century knew about copying others and plagiarism, as well as copyright law. [MUSIC]
