In this dazzling work of history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Benjamin Franklin to France for the crowning achievement of his career ●Michael Douglas stars in Franklin, premiering April 12 only on Apple TV+
In December of 1776 a small boat delivered an old man to France." So begins an enthralling narrative account of how Benjamin Franklin--seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French--convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America's experiment in democracy.
When Franklin stepped onto French soil, he well understood he was embarking on the greatest gamble of his career. By virtue of fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues; engineered the Franco-American alliance of 1778; and helped to negotiate the peace of 1783. The eight-year French mission stands not only as Franklin's most vital service to his country but as the most revealing of the man.
In A Great Improvisation, Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin's life. Here is an unfamiliar, unforgettable chapter of the Revolution, a rousing tale of American infighting, and the treacherous backroom dealings at Versailles that would propel George Washington from near decimation at Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown. From these pages emerge a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country's bid for independence.
Stacy Schiff is the author of Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2000, and Saint-Exupery, which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize. Schiff's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and The Times Literary Supplement. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She lives in New York City.
Stacy Schiff is the author of Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2000, and Saint-Exupery, which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize. Schiff's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and The Times Literary Supplement. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She lives in New York City.
From A Great Improvisation: Typically after an ocean crossing Franklin's eyes brimmed with tears at the sight of land; he had just withstood the most brutal voyage of his life. For thirty days he had pitched about violently on the wintry Atlantic, in a cramped cabin and under unremittingly dark skies. He was left with barely the strength to stand, but was to cause a sensation. Even his enemies conceded that he touched down in France like a meteor. Among American arrivals, only Charles Lindbergh could be said to have met with equal rapture, the difference being that Lindbergh was not a celebrity until he landed in Paris. At the time he set foot on French soil Benjamin Franklin was among the most famous men in the world. It was his country that was the great unknown. America was six months old; Franklin seventy years her senior. And the fate of that infant republic was, to a significant extent, in his hands.
Table of Contents
Cast of Characters
xi
Introduction
1
I
The First Mistake in Public Business Is the Going into It 1776
7
II
Half the Truth Is Often a Great Lie 1776-1777
36
III
Three Can Keep a Secret, If Two of Them Are Dead 1777
65
IV
The Cat in Gloves Catches No Mice 1777-1778
94
V
There Is No Such Thing as a Little Enemy 1778
126
VI
Admiration Is the Daughter of Ignorance 1778
165
VII
Success Has Ruined Many a Man 1779
196
VIII
Everyone Has Wisdom Enough to Manage the Affairs of His Neighbors 1780
229
IX
The Sting of a Reproach Is the Truth of It 1780-1781
260
X
Those Who in Quarrels Interpose May Get Bloody Nose 1782
291
XI
The Absent Are Never Without Fault 1783
325
XII
Creditors Have Better Memories Than Debtors 1784-1785
1. How would you answer the question raised in the Crèvecoeur quote that opens the introduction? How would a colonist answer the question? How would a European?
2. What set Benjamin Franklin apart from other founding fathers? Did he personify "this new man" more accurately than the other founding fathers did?
3. Though charged with similar duties, Franklin and Silas Deane garnered fairly different results. Compare their diplomacy styles, and other factors affecting their mission in France. Did the fact that Franklin made the pivotal trip to France in his seventies give him an upper hand?
4. Did the negotiation tactics of John Adams enhance or undermine Franklin's successes? Do you think Franklin is to blame for his difficulties with his colleagues, or was he simply unlucky in the company Congress sent him?
5. Many of the fascinating details culled by Stacy Schiff include the vagaries of transatlantic travel and correspondence in the eighteenth century. Vital letters ended up on the ocean floor; spies intercepted hand-delivered missives; supply ships were captured; and passengers (even Franklin, en route to the French coast in 1776) often had to endure horrifically rough voyages to cross the ocean. How has modern technology transformed diplomacy? Were there any benefits to the laborious protocol of Franklin's era?
6. Discuss Vergennes's motivations in negotiating with Franklin. In Vergennes's mind, what were the political and financial ramifications of supporting the Americans? What events caused his point of view to shift? How did his motivations compare to those of private suppliers, such as Chaumont?
7. How did Benny fare as a schoolboy in Europe? In what way was his identity influenced by living there at such a formative age? Did he and Temple share their grandfather's perception of French culture? Do you believe that Temple's father, William, had good reason to be a Loyalist, Did he do the right thing? Did Franklin?
8. Franklin's numerous inventions contributed to his fame throughout France, where his likeness appeared on assorted kitschy objects. Why was he more celebrated (and more properly eulogized) in France than in the colonies?
9. Discuss the women in Franklin's life. What do you conclude about his marriage? Did American culture permit women like Madame Brillon and Madame Helvétius to exist in Franklin's homeland? How did you react to the generations of illegitimate children marking Franklin's lineage?
10. The title A Great Improvisation reminds us of the unscripted, uncharted territory in which Franklin and the patriots gambled with high stakes. How did Franklin put uncertainty to work for him? Was he a better improviser than the kings of France, Spain, and England?
11. What defenses did Franklin possess for undermining British propaganda efforts? Why do you think he—America's greatest writer and prominent publisher—wrote so little while in France?
12. The year prior to Franklin's death, French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille prison and set in motion Napoleon's rise to power. What might Franklin have thought of those events? What did he seem to think about the general concept of monarchies?
13. Did Franklin feel at home once he returned to Philadelphia? Why was he not given compensation equal to other American diplomats? Do you have sympathy for him?
14. This chapter of American history raises several provocative what-ifs: What if Franklin had not been dispatched to France? What if George Washington's wish had been fulfilled and the revolution had been fought without French troops?
15. What could the world's current political leaders learn from the aphorisms that comprise the chapter titles – All drawn from Poor Richard's Almanacin A Great Improvisation?
16. Did this chapter of Franklin's life color your sense of the other, better-known adventures? Why do you think the author chose to focus on it? How does Schiff's Franklin tally with your image of him before your read A Great Improvisation?
17. Among the supporting cast, did you develop a fondness for any particular character?
18. Did the author approach the subject of Ben Franklin in the same way she approached the subjects of her previous biographies, Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) and Saint-Exupéry?
Stacy Schiff gets it. She gets people. She studies lives tirelessly and fiercely and perfectly, and when she is finished studying, she publishes works of flawlessly interpreted, beautiful, and meticulously researched prose. Her biographies have reenergized our love of history, and given us the gift of feeling well-informed and eloquent when defending powerful women, dropping “did you knows?” […]
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff has written about a fascinating and diverse group of subjects, from Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), to Benjamin Franklin and Cleopatra.