Franklin, Benjamin, printer

Poor Richard, 1733. An Almanack for the Year of Christ 1733. ... By Richard Saunders ... The Third Impression. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, [1732–1733]



8vo in half-sheets (6 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.; 158 x 95 mm). Bound first in an almanac Sammelband with 3 others (including a previously unknown 1733 Almamack by William Birkett), and accompanied by 2 other almanac volumes containing 7 and 5 imprints, respectively. Sewn in uniform heavy brown paper wrappers; soiled and worn.

Polly Custard

Miller 54; Evans 3543; Hildeburn 448b; Campbell 44; Drake 9561

One of the most significant publications in American history: the first "Poor Richard" almanac, one of three copies known.

With his myriad achievements in politics, science, journalism, invention, printing, and publishing, Benjamin Franklin may be best known for his monumentally successful series of Poor Richard almanacs, which combined humor and pragmatic advice in a manner never seen before. Franklin developed Poor Richard, written under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, out of necessity. In 1732 his printing shop lost the commissions for John Jerman's American Almanac and Thomas Godfrey's Almanac to his rival, Andrew Bradford, and he decided to launch his own title into the crowded almanac field.

Franklin established the sensibility of his almanac, and brought the fledgling publication needed publicity, when he used his preface to predict the death of Titian Leeds—author of the colonies' most popular almanac. Leeds's protests of the satire simply contributed to Poor Richard's noteriety.

Franklin's Poor Richard, 1733 also established the popularity of the proverbs and aphorisms that he sprinkled throughout the monthly texts (some original with him, most adapted from earlier sources). The proverbs from the first almanac reflect the themes and topics that Franklin would continue to develop throughout the series: sobriety ("He that drinks fast, pays slow," August); prudence ("He's a Fool that makes his Doctor his Heir," February; "Distrust and caution are the parents of security," July); pithy observations ("After 3 says men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy," June); and, not least, earthy humor ("Relation without friendship, friendship without power, power without will, will without effect, ettect without profit, and profit without vertue, and not worth a farto," April).

Franklin's foray into almanac writing was hugely successful, with three printings of the 1733 edition being required. In an advertisement in the 11 Janaury 1733 Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin noted that in some copies, the months of September and October had been transposed, "but that fault is now rectified." Franklin also advertised a "Second Edition" of the 1733 Poor Richard, but no copy so designated has been located. Until the recent rediscovery of the present copy in the collections of the Berwick, Pennsylvania, Historical Society, the only two other copies of Poor Richard, 1733 are in the Library Company, Philadelphia (also the the third impression) and in the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia (traditionally described as a corrected issue the first impression, but possibly the second impression).

Franklin was personally responsible for the first twenty-five years of Poor Richard, although the title was continued by his former partner David Hall after 1758—and by others well into the nineteenth-century. As Leo Lemay writes in his magesterial biography, "As an almanac maker, [Franklin] had no peer. ...Some materials in the almanacs may be read for intrinsic enjoyment, and some may be read for their insight into Franklin's mind and character" (The Life, 2:213).

Almanac Inventory

 

First volume:

Poor Richard, 1773 (Drake 9561)

Birkett. An Almanck for ... 1733 (unrecorded)

The Genuine Leeds Almanck for ...1730 (Drake 9539)

Leeds 1731. The American Almanack for ...1731 (not in Drake, but recorded)

 

Second volume:

Leeds 1717. The American Almanack for ...1717 (Drake 9491)

Leeds 1718. The American Almanack for ...1718 (Drake 9493)

Leeds 1719. The American Almanack for ...1719 (Drake 9494)

Leeds 1720. The American Almanack for ...1720 (Drake 9497)

Leeds 1721. The American Almanack for ...1721 (Drake 9500)

Leeds 1722. The American Almanack for ...1722 (Drake 9502)

Leeds 1723. The American Almanack for ...1723 (Drake 9506; incomplete)

 

Third volume:

The Pennsylvania Town and Country-Man's Almanack for ... 1763 (with folding wood-engraved portrait of George III; separated at fold) (Drake 9855)

Poor Richard improved ...for ...1762 (Drake 9845)

Poor Richard improved ...for ...1761 (Drake 9832)

Poor Richard improved ...for ...1759 (Drake 9808)

The Universal American Almanack ...for ...1760 (Drake 9822)