Stacy Schiff
Eugene Sheffer Distinguished Lecture
In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin undertook the greatest gamble of his career. The American colonies had declared independence but were without money, munitions, or gunpowder. Amid great secrecy, Franklin crossed the wintry Atlantic to solicit aid from the French monarchy. He was 70 years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessing only the most rudimentary French. The eight years he spent cultivating an alliance with France serve not only as his most vital service to his country - it was largely on account of Franklin’s charisma and ingenuity that France underwrote the American Revolution - but as the most revealing of the man. His French mission would prove the most inventive act in a lifetime of astonishing inventions.
Stacy Schiff provides a dazzling narrative of Franklin’s time in France, one of the least-explored chapters of his life, in A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the American Revolution (Holt, 2005). The book garnered numerous prizes including the George Washington Book Prize, the Ambassador Award in American Studies, and the Gilbert Chinard Prize, and was named a best book of the year in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Economist. The Apple mini-series, “Franklin,” starring Michael Douglas, is based on Schiff’s book, with a screenplay by Emmy Award-winner Kirk Ellis and directed by Emmy Award-winner Tim Van Patten.
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, it is timely to remember how this Founding Father produced and nurtured the alliance to which America owes her independence.
The Eugene Sheffer Distinguished Speaker series honors eminent scholars whose work has had an important impact on their field of study. This series was created by the family of Eugene Sheffer to honor his commitment to the Columbia Maison Française, which he directed from 1942 to 1966
