Massachusetts Historical Society

Read Benjamin Franklin's 1st published prose, 14 essays written by him under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. In these essays, published as letters to the editor of a Boston newspaper in 1722, the 16-year-old Franklin writes as the outspoken widow Silence Dogood and tells the story of her life as well as commenting on social and political issues such as higher education, liberty of speech, the rights of women, religious hypocrisy, and the vice of drunkenness. These witty, satirical pieces, described as the 1st essay series in American literature, foreshadow Franklin's later success as the author and publisher of Poor Richard's.