As part of a celebration of the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s birth, Mark Skousen talked about his book The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, published by Regnery. Benjamin Franklin’s original autobiography covered only the first fifty-one years of his life. Mr. Skousen described how he completed the autobiography by adding materials written by Franklin about his experiences in his personal and public life, covering the last 33 years of his life, and included Franklin’s thoughts on his colleagues, his views on sex, and the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Skousen noted that Franklin did not write about the Declaration at the time because it was “secret.” After his presentation the editor answered audience members' questions.

Mark Skousen, an economist, is Benjamin Franklin’s eighth-generation grandson, through Franklin’s grandson Louis Bache.