Poor Richard's Women

November 1, 2021
A journalist and social historian explores how Benjamin Franklin "was fascinated by the fair sex but considered the currents between them as dangerous as electricity." Most people know Franklin as the scientist, statesman, and eminent man of American letters. But as Stuart, executive director of the Cape Cod Writers Center, demonstrates in this biography, beneath the distinguished fa�ade was a man who "privately struggled with prudence and passion." Born to a British "soap and tallow candle maker" and his New England wife, Franklin later fled to Philadelphia after breaking an apprenticeship contract with his brother, a master printer. Stuart argues that Franklin's pragmatism accounted for the choice he made to wed Deborah Read, a wealthy carpenter's daughter. For the duration of their common-law marriage, she managed Franklin's business affairs, bore his daughter Sally, and raised the son he had by a different woman. "While not intellectually brilliant like Ben," writes Stuart, "Deborah was an astute businesswoman and devoted helpmate who not only contributed to his early success but also attended to his complex business affairs during his years overseas." His passionate midlife flirtations with a much younger family friend did not imperil their relationship; nor did Deborah's decision to remain in Philadelphia while he traveled to Britain as a colonial agent. His motherly landlady, Margaret Stevenson, quickly became the unacknowledged "second wife" with whom he lived contentedly during his years in London. But neither of these "wives" was ever able to quell Franklin's passions. His later years as senior statesman in France brought with them two intense--but ultimately unconsummated--simultaneous romances with a beautiful but married and possessive young aristocrat, Madame Brillon, and a much older "freewheeling" widow, Madame Helv�tius. This readable, well-researched book will appeal to those interested in the unruly intimate life of archrationalist Franklin as well as students of the too-often-ignored roles of women in the historical record. A revealing document about early American history.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 8, 2021
Journalist Stuart (Defiant Brides) offers a fresh perspective on Benjamin Franklin in this revealing study of his relationships with women. Though some scholars have described Franklin’s common-law wife, Deborah Read Franklin, as “ignorant” and “provincial,” Stuart rejects those characterizations as misogynist, noting that, despite her lack of formal education, Deborah’s business acumen was so astute Franklin gave her power of attorney during his absences. Deborah also raised Franklin’s out-of-wedlock son, Billy, though she “never loved nor accepted the child as her own,” according to Stuart. Perpetually torn between his “prudence” and his “passion,” Franklin’s affections often wandered, usually to younger women, though his deepest relationship outside of marriage was with a woman his age: Margaret Rooke Stevenson, his widowed landlady in London. After Deborah died in 1774, Margaret hoped that Franklin would marry her, but his attentions were soon divided between two aristocratic French women—one of whom was so alarmed by his insistent marriage proposals that she fled Paris for a friend’s home in Tours. Stuart paints a nuanced portrait of Deborah and the other women in Franklin’s life, briskly recounts the highlights of his long and varied career, and incisively analyzes the era’s gender dynamics. American history buffs will be fascinated.

December 1, 2021
Benjamin Franklin has been the subject of hundreds of books and research projects. Less is known about the women in his life, which has led to endless, often conflicting speculation. In this scrupulously documented biography, historian Stuart (Defiant Brides, 2013) examines primary sources through a feminist lens, combing through personal letters, period publications, such as Poor Richard's Almanac and The Federalist Papers, and Franklin's own autobiography to create profiles of the women who supported, cared for, and intrigued Franklin. Deborah, his common-law wife for 43 years, emerges as a capable and shrewd businesswoman, an ally who remained devoted despite the ongoing gossip (and occasional compelling evidence) of Franklin's dalliances. Other women (family friend Catherine Ray, London landlady Margaret Stevenson, and Mesdames Brillon and Helvetius, two sophisticated French aristocrats) are treated with the same exacting attention to detail, leading to evidence-backed conjecture. Stuart has an engaging style and weaves in significant historical context. Readers will encounter illegitimate offspring, broken engagements, long silences, suspicious gifts, eighteenth-century social conventions, and unique and compelling women.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from January 1, 2022

Journalist Stuart's (Defiant Brides) new women's history is an engrossing look at the human side of Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation's best-known Founding Fathers. Franklin's image as a womanizer is fairly well established, but less familiar are the stories of the various women whom he loved, lived with, and courted throughout his life. Using a post-feminist lens that's critical of gender essentialism, Stuart rescues these women from obscurity, focusing on their lives, emotions, and feelings as much as she strives to understand the complexity of Franklin's views on love, sexuality, and human relationships. His struggle with both "passion and prudence" is the book's theme. Its main contribution is its sensitive portrayal of Franklin's common law wife Deborah Read, with whom he lived for 44 years. Stuart depicts Read as an astute businesswoman and vital support to Franklin; someone who tended to his financial and business interests during his long overseas ventures. Describing his other love affairs against the backdrop of domestic and international politics, Stuart attempts to make sense of Franklin's complicated and unorthodox attachments by juxtaposing them against statements from his various writings. VERDICT For lovers of biography, American history, and women's studies. This is a terrific read: poignant, provocative, and probing.--Marie M. Mullaney

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.