The slums of Eades Alley offers little to the lovely and almost always hungry sixteen year old Anne, so when she saw the sign "Girl Wanted", her hunger drove her in the door of that notorious place. With her father deadly ill and too many other children at home, Anne sets out to work at the Penny Pot Tavern near the riverfront in Philadelphia. The small scraps of food she is able to bring home often are more than her wages, so when the handsome gent who likes to show her little experiments in the tavern offers her a half crown sterling to go upstairs, the thoughts of how many meat pies it would buy has Anne eagerly following up behind him.
While they both enjoy these short visits up the stairs, the young Ben Franklin has already made a commitment to another. As he often touts, "I am monogamous, but not celibate". In 1723, he had lodged with the Read family and soon had a strong relationship going with their daughter Deborah. Then, a wonderful opportunity arose. Ben is being sent to London, but Deborah's mother would not allow the young lovers to marry. Would he ever come back for her?
From his humble start as a printer's apprentice to the top echelons of colonial America, Sally Cabot masterfully paints a very vivid and compelling look at the more private and personal side of this famous and multitalented statesman and inventor who became one of the founding fathers of the United States. While official biographies focus on and laud Franklin's many roles from publisher to negotiator and then to political leader, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S BASTARD takes you right into the heart of his life and presents a very human and fascinating portrayal not only of him as well as of the times. Reading it is really like seeing it directly from the eyes of the women he loves, from his friends, and most importantly from the perspective of his son, William Temple.
Based soundly on her extensive and meticulous research and covering a time period critical to American history from 1723 to 1777, Sally Cabot (aka Sally Gunning) sets out a highly credible fictional account to respond to questions, such as why Ben's common-law wife would accept his bastard child in their home, why the name of William's mother became such a guarded secret, and why Ben and his son end up with such divided loyalties. While we may never truly know the answers to these long lingering questions, Cabot, as a literary mid-wife, very successfully delivers truly human historical characters that are so alive and vital, both in their physical descriptions as well as in their psychological motivations, you just have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens to all. This is truly a compelling and fascinating book that an historical fiction fan would not want to miss!
An absorbing and compelling work of literary historical
fiction, set in colonial Philadelphia, that brings to life a
little-known chapter of the American Revolutionβthe story of
Benjamin Franklin and his bastard son, and the women who
loved them
Sixteen-year-old Anne is an uneducated serving girl at the
Penny Pot tavern when she first meets the commanding
Benjamin Franklin. The time she spends with the brilliant
young printer teases her curious mind, and the money he
provides keeps her family from starving. But the ambitious
Franklin is committed to someone else, a proper but
infatuated woman named Deborah Read who becomes his common-
law wife. At least Anne has William, her cherished infant
son, to remind her of his father and to soften some of
life's bleakness.
But growing up a bastard amid the squalor of Eades Alley
isn't the life Anne wants for her only son. Acutely aware of
the challenges facing them, she makes a heartbreaking
sacrifice. She will give up William forever, allowing
Benjamin and Deborah Franklin to raise him as their own.
Though she cannot be with him, Anne secretly watches out for
her beloved child, daring to be close to him without
revealing the truth about herself or his birth, and standing
guard as Deborah Franklin struggles to accept her husband's
bastard son as her own.
As the years pass, the bustling colonies grow and prosper,
offering opportunities for wealth and power for a talented
man like William's father. Benjamin's growing fame and
connections as a scientist, writer, philosopher,
businessman, and political genius open doors for the astute
William as well, and eventually King George III appoints
Benjamin's bastard son to the new position of Royal Governor
of New Jersey. Anne's fortunes also rise. A shrewd woman of
many talents, she builds a comfortable life of her ownβyet
nothing fills her with more joy or pride than her son's
success and happiness.
But all that her accomplished son has achieved is threatened
when the coloniesβled by influential men, including his own
fatherβbegin the fight for independence. A steadfast, loyal
subject of the British Crown, William cannot accept his
father's passionate defense of the patriots' cause, and the
enduring bond they share fractures, a heart-wrenching break
that will forever haunt them and those they love.
A poignant tale of passion, family, love, and war, Benjamin
Franklin's Bastard skillfully brings into focus a cast of
remarkable characters drawn from real life, and vividly re-
creates one of the most remarkable and thrilling periods of
historyβthe birth of the American nation.
No excerpt available.
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