Almost Chosen People: Oblique Biographies in the American Grain

5. The Selling of the Self: From Franklin to Barnum

FIVE The Selling of the Self: From Franklin to Barnum Each of them straddled his century like a colossus. Each was born near its beginning—one in 1706,the other in 1801—and each lived almost to its end—one to 1790, the other to 1891. Each of them began in obscurity, each had half a century of celebrity, and each died acclaimed as the representativeAmerican of his age. Benjamin Franklin was the embodiment of the Enlightenment. David Hume pronounced him "thefirstphilosopher and indeed the first great man of letters for whom we are beholden to America." The Parisians lionized him while he lived among them and lamented him when he died far from them; his fame in France was so extraordinarythat the National Assembly proclaimed a period of national mourning when word of his death reached the continent. Even causticJohn Adams conceded enviously that "his reputation was more universal than that of Leibniz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved or esteemed than any or allof them."' Phineas Taylor Barnum was the most celebrated American of the nineteenth century. His own posters modestly hailed him as the "hero about whose name clusters so much of romantic interest and whose brilliant deeds are themes of poetry and prose." Others praised him more An earlier version of this essay was read at the National Conference on Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin, Yale University, February 22—24, 1990. 1. Ormond Seavey, Becoming Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and the Life (University Park, Pa., 1988), 180, 76, 217;Gilbert Chinard, "TheApotheosis of Benjamin Franklin, Paris, 1790-1791" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 99 (1955): 440-73. 145 146 ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE effusively. American presidents anointed him the most admired American in the world. Europeans saw in him the symbol of an era of unprecedented amusements for the masses. Upon his death the London Times grieved his passing and called him "an almost classical figure." The French press paid him homage as "the character of our century": a "great benefactor of humanity," an "incomparable," whose "name is immortal ."2 Thomas Carlyle took Franklin for "the father of all the Yankees." Barnum implicitly acknowledged that paternity, patterning his autobiography unmistakably upon Franklin's and dedicating it to "the universal Yankee nation, of which I am proud to be one." American copywriters would one day salute Franklin as the "Patron Saint of Advertising." Memorialists marked Barnum's death by crowning him "king of advertising ." Balzac celebrated Franklin as the inventor of the lightning rod, the republic, and the hoax. Barnum built his national notoriety on a succession of scams and flimflams long before he launched the circuses by which Americans still know his name.3 These convergences were more than merely casual. They were but a few of the commonalities and uncanny coincidences in the careers and concerns of the two men. Since those commonalities and coincidences spanned almost two full centuries of American history, it would seem plausible to propose that they issued from deep continuities in our character and that they reveal persisting preoccupations and perplexitiesin our collective life. Franklin wrote the most popular and influential American autobiography of all time. Barnum wrote the best-selling American autobiography of the nineteenth century. And they both told a tale of ascent from humble origins through discouragements and hardships to inspiring triumphs. Each account was damned by a fastidious few as the confession of a con artist—the preachment of "our wise prophet of chicanery," as William Carlos Williams denounced Franklin's narrative, "a perfect pattern-book for would-be Yankees and 'cute' businessmen," as others assailed Barnum's—and each was discovered by the multitudes "as evidences of the American genius."4 2. Neil Harris, Humbug: TheAn of P. T. Barnum (Boston, 1973), inside jacket, 281, 280. 3. Esmond Wright, ed., Benjamin franklin: A Profile (New York, 1970), ix; Phineas T. Barnum, The Life of P. T. Bamum (New York, 1855), ii; Esmond Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia (Cambridge, Mass., 1986), 12; Harris, Humbug, 280; Wright, franklin of Philadelphia, 355. 4. Frank Luther Mott, Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best-Sellers m the United States (New York, 1947); William Carlos Williams, In theAmerican Grain (1925; reprint, New THE SELLING OF THE SELF 147 Franklin and Barnum alike went forth to forge, in the smithies of their operations if not of their souls, the uncreated conscience of their country. And they both...