Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

Because there was no foundry in America for casting type, Franklin contrived one of his own by using Keimer’s letters to make lead molds. He thus became the first person in America to manufacture type. One of the most popular contemporary typefaces, a sans-serif font known as Franklin Gothic that is often used in newspaper headlines, was named after him in 1902.

historians. His book was the first masterpiece of autobiography by a self-made man.”