The Book Prize Index

Benjamin Franklin

Edmund S. Morgan

Benjamin Franklin is a non-fiction biography written by literary critic and biographer Carl Van Doren. The book was originally published in 1938 by Viking Press; it is an authoritative telling of Franklin's life that makes heavy use of his own autobiography and his later papers and essays. The book was the 1939 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. The book received critical acclaim upon release and has been re-released in numerous editions.

BiographyBiography · medium confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyKeyword Classifier: Arts & Criticism -> Arts & CriticismAward Category: National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography -> BiographyScientific BiographyLiterature & WritersMemoir & Personal History

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Critics Circle Award for BiographyMajor2002FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Benjamin Franklin90%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    30 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 72%.