Books
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Benjamin Franklin and Polly Baker
The History of a Literary Deception
Max Hall
Copyright 1960
University of North Carolina Press
Hall has made the first detailed investigation of Polly Baker. It leads through the exciting world of eighteenth-century journalism, literature, and statecraft. Ben Franklin occupies a position in the story second only to Polly Baker herself. Evident throughout is the tendency of people, even in an age of enlightenment, to believe what they see--provided they see it in print.
Originally published in 1960.
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Reviews
This is an impressive and amusing book. Mr. Hall pursues Polly Baker through the press of two continents with the persistence and ingenuity I associate with the best scholarship, and he writes in a style other historians could well emulate.
--Frederick B. Tolles