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Did Benjamin Franklin propose marriage to Madame Helvétius?
VERDICTTRUE
In writing, at least. Around January 1780 he sent her “The Elysian Fields,” in which, rejected by her resolve to stay a widow, he dreams he meets her late husband in the afterlife, now married to Franklin’s late wife Deborah, and proposes they avenge themselves. He printed it at Passy. His editors say no one knows how serious he was.
The receipts
- Benjamin Franklin to Anne-Catherine de Ligniville Helvétius: Two Editions of “The Elysian Fields,” [c. 1 January 1780], Founders Online, National Archives
The comedy version
The untold story of Benjamin Franklin, who won the Revolution with an essay about wind.
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