A Great Improvisation

Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
By Stacy Schiff, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
489 pages with Index and Illustrations.

Schiff, an award-winning biographer, takes a gamble with this behind-the-scenes look at Benjamin Franklin’s political agenda in 18th-century France. According to Schiff, who focuses on the then 70-year-old Franklin’s seven-year visit to France, the politico’s mission was to keep the country from interfering with America during its introduction to independence. Franklin, a man known as much for his intellectual appetite as for his unusual qualities, emerges larger-than-life in Schiff’s biography. Her analysis of Franklin’s efforts provides readers with plenty of interesting material about the overarching political milieu, the shrewd diplomat, and his contribution to American ideals of liberty and democracy.