But perhaps, Brown wrote, by looking at household papers one could discern and record the lives of the unhistoried. The early American novelist Charles Brockden Brown thought that history was for men’s lives, while the intimacy of fiction was for women’s. Throughout Book of Ages, Lepore poses the question of what is lost to historians who study women and the poor. Like so much about Jane, we will never know, although Lepore offers fascinating and plausible possibilities.

But, as Jane wrote to her brother, Ben, “I had had some children that seemed to be doing well till they were taken off by Death.” She wrote her Book of Ages in an ornate script that she never employed elsewhere its meaning to her may have been grandly expansive or as literal as the few names and numbers listed inside. Of her eleven children, three died as infants, and the rest lived on into adulthood.

Lepore took her title from Jane’s record of her children’s births and deaths, the precious list of a poor woman’s life work.

Her original, affectionate, and smart biography of Benjamin Franklin’s sister makes Jane Franklin Mecom’s arduous life and diligent pursuit of understanding a delight to read and hard to forget. Jill Lepore has contributed more than her share of insightful books, articles, and essays on early America over the last fifteen years or so Book of Ages is, to me, the most compelling yet. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin

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