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Talk: Benjamin Franklin (Greenville) POSTPONED

Event details

  • May 5, 2020
  • 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
  • Hughes Library, 25 Heritage Green Pl. Greenville, 29601
  • 864-244-1499

 View Map  Cost: Free

Talk: Benjamin Franklin


THIS TALK HAS BEEN POSTPONED. The Greenville Library System is closed as of March 17, 2020 with no reschedule date. We will reschedule this Talk when more is known about the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In the meantime you can check out ebooks from the Library for free and read up on Ben Franklin.

Larry Bounds is magic. Since 1973 he has appeared as a professional magician – including eight years with Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, three years on the stage of a Kentucky theme park, as well as, manager of magic shops in Atlanta and presenter of thousands of public performances.

Recently retired from teaching AP English at Wade Hampton, since 1988 he magically made English interesting for high school students and is known as one of Greenville’s most influential educators.

Since 2002 Larry has magically transformed himself into different figures from American history for the Greenville Chautauqua stage. He has been Andrew Jackson, Einstein, Churchill, Disney, Davy Crockett, Walter Cronkite and, of course, Harry Houdini. Larry holds a B.A. in Theater and an M.Ed from University of Tennessee.

This event is a discussion NOT an in-character performance. Larry will perform as Ben Franklin in the June Chautauqua History Comes Alive Festival June 12 – 21.

Living in the Age of Enlightenment, Ben Franklin was many things: a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, a founding father. Above all, he was an inventor, creating solutions to common problems, innovating new technology, new governments and even making life a little more musical. Franklin upheld science and intellect and reason – scandalous man!

Franklin helped invent and reinvent the American government as well as himself. He was a Loyalist who transformed into a patriot and founding father. He proposed the Albany Plan, mirroring the Iroquois. He drew up the Articles of Confederation uniting the colonies under the British Crown – and then he signed their Declaration of Independence. As the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, he declared that the new government was a republic – if we can keep it.

Besides his experiments in electricity and inventions of bifocals, swim fins, the Franklin stove and the glass armonica, perhaps Ben Franklin should be best known for helping create a government with the flexibility to reinvent itself.

1706 – Born in Boston

1718 – Apprenticed as printer to brother James

1723 – Ran away to Philadelphia

1732 – Publishes Poor Richard’s Almanack

1747 – Creates America’s first political cartoon

1753 – Honorary doctorates from Harvard and Yale

1757 -1775 colonial representative in London

1776 – Helps draft the Declaration of Independence

1777-1784 – Ambassador to France

1787 – Helps draft US Constitution

1790 – Dies in Philadelphia

Haste makes Waste.

No gains without pains.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.

Better slip with foot than tongue.

Well done is better than well said. 

What you seem to be, be really.

Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good.

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

* The First American: the life and times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands. (2000) This national bestseller draws upon previously unpublished letters and other sources for a well told biography.

Benjamin Franklin – A Biography by Ronald W. Clark (1883) A well respected volume.

* Benjamin Franklin – An American Life by Walter Isaacson (2003) The current standard text on Franklin.

* The Life of Benjamin Franklin (3 volumes) by J.A. Lemay (2006) An enormous collection of information on Franklin and his times.

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, J.A. Lemay & P.M. Zall eds, (1986) This is the best starting place for any Franklin study, and the Norton Critical edition has excellent explanatory notes.

* Book of Ages – The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lenore (2013) The surprising story of Franklin’s youngest sister with whom Franklin corresponded his whole life.

* Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (2002) An excellent short introduction to Franklin.

* A Great Improvisation – Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Stacy Schindler (2005) The most thorough look at Franklin in Paris.

* Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren (1938) A joy to read and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

(Starred items are available through the Greenville County Library System)

GREENVILLE LIBRARY