The teenager who pretended to be a widow

In 1722, sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin was an apprentice in the Boston print shop of his older brother James, who published a newspaper called The New-England Courant. Ben wanted to write for it, but knew James would never print his work.

So he invented a character: Silence Dogood, a middle-aged widow with strong opinions. He disguised his handwriting and slipped her letters under the print-shop door at night.

James published them, and readers loved them. Over fourteen letters, Mrs Dogood mocked Harvard students, criticised the treatment of women and defended freedom of speech. Some readers even wrote in proposing marriage to her.

When Ben finally admitted he was the author, James was furious. Not long after, Ben broke his apprenticeship and ran away to Philadelphia, arriving with almost nothing. Within a decade he owned his own newspaper. If no one will publish you, he had learned, find another way in.