Benjamin Franklin, Citizen: A One-Man Performance [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Fredd Wayne (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1995

Ben Franklin's wisdom is just as potent now as it was over 200 years ago. A Founding Father of the United States, he was also a world citizen, a philosopher, author, and scientist. Fredd Wayne's brilliant performance reveals his genius with a sense of proportion that carefully balances excerpts from Franklin's public writings and his private correspondence. In this exclusive audio production, Ben Franklin speaks to us all. 1 cassette.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Benjamin Franklin, Citizen is tactful in reporting on the personal details of Franklin's life - his common-law wife, French mistress and illegitimate son. You have to be attentive, but it's all there and is a welcome addition to the audio tradition that also includes similar treatments of the lives of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens." -- The Arizona Daily Star, April 29, 1995

"Actor Fredd Wayne has made a career of portraying Benjamin Franklin on television, film and especially on stage, in his one-man show "Benjamin Franklin, Citizen." His portrayal is now available on audio...Audio fans who saw those performances will recognize much, including the glass armonica Wayne plays on stage. The glass armonica was Franklin's inventive version of water-glass chimes, in which specially made glasses were set inside an ornate case and rung on a spindle...The Audio Partners' edition of the show includes music performed on the glass armonica by a European expert, the same music used by Wayne on stage to make it appear the he actually is playing...Audio transcriptions of one-man shows are a specialty of Audio Partners." -- Kate Seago, Daily News, April 13, 1995

"In the same category as Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight ... consistently entertaining." -- Variety

About the Author

Mark Twain is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910). Writer, journalist, lecturer, he was born in Florida, Mo., grew up along the Mississippi River. He left school at age 12 and worked as a printer (1847--57), then as a Mississippi riverboat pilot (1857--61). In 1863 he took as his pen name the call used when sounding the river shallows, "Mark twain!" referring to two fathoms. In 1861, after a few unhappy weeks as a Confederate volunteer, he went to Nevada where he tried gold mining and then edited a newspaper. In 1864 he went to San Francisco as a reporter and achieved his first success with "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865). He won wide popularity with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), but it was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) that eventually became regarded as a seminal work of American literature. In his final years he was greatly honored, and his opinions on everything were sought out by the public, but the posthumous publication of his autobiography (1924) revealed the dim, indeed dark view he held of his fellow humans.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audio Partners (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572700025
• ISBN-13: 978-1572700024
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,115,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)