Thanks for the ping; post. I’ve never heard of Paul Johnson. Thanks to all posters.
Optimism BUMP!
He has a reputation as a historian, tho I confess to never having gotten around to reading any of his books.I was thinking, "How does he know that Franklin "invented" the one-liner?" - but then, on his standing as a historian I guess we can take it for granted that Mr. Johnson will have done the research - or else have good authorities who he knows have. The negative that one-liners were not used by anyone before Franklin just sounds like a difficult thing to prove.
But for sure, that guy Franklin was a piece of work. Not only proved that lightning was electricity - which was a big deal at that time - but was the expert on electricity at the time. He invented the positive/negative nomenclature for electricity, and he gave the battery its name (which relates "batteries" of cells to "batteries" of cannon). Then there is the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and a musical instrument of some interest - the "glass armonica". He also started the first lending library in America, and founded the University of Pennsylvania. And, starting from nothing more than the shirt on his back, created a publishing empire which made him among the wealthiest people in America by the time he was 40. Why shouldn't he invent the one-liner, too? I guess it's a credible claim . . .