At least two early readers of Franklin's "Notes of My Life" urged its author to complete and publish the work. Abel James, after having read an early manuscript, wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin in 1782, positing,

What will the World say if kind, humane and benevolent Ben Franklin should leave his Friends and the World deprived of so pleasing and profitable a Work, a Work which would be useful and entertaining not only to a few, but to millions…. I know of no Character living nor many of them put together, who has so much in his Power as Thyself to promote a greater Spirit of Industry and early Attention to Business, Frugality and Temperance with the American Youth.

Another friend, Benjamin Vaughn, wrote in 1783,

All that has happened to you is also connected with the detail of the manners and situation of a rising people...