| When Lemay, a noted scholar of American literature, began gathering documents in preparation for a biography of Franklin, he realized that the collection had scholarly value of its own; however, few libraries would be interested in the seven volumes it would take. He realized that it was more appropriate for them to appear on-line with full search capacity. Franklin's life is divided into sections with each year detailing his activities and relevant documents. Actually this work, posted in 1997, is probably of greater interest to Franklin scholars than sophomore students of American literature, but it indicates a promising trend in Internet publication of solid work being readily available, searchable and open to updates. |