THE MANY LIVES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From the author of numerous books for young people, a useful (if unexceptional) biography. Osborne presents a clear picture of a man of his period--his relatively unpromising youth, his growing enterprise as a printer, and the years of his prime, when he became one of the most accomplished of men, distinguishing himself in literature, science, and politics, vigorous to the last. But while Osborne gives a broader sense of Franklin's achievements by carefully setting them in their historical context, she is less effective in bringing him to life as a personality or accounting for the breadth of his protean gifts. Acceptable, then, but not outstanding, B&w photos and reproductions. List of Franklin's accomplishments; chronology; but no sources and no index.