Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year 1758 — the last of the series written by Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Poor Richard Improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris of the Motions of the Sun and Moon ... For the Year 1758. Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, [1757]

12mo (150 x 84 mm). Manuscript table at front, woodcut borders and vignettes including anatomical man and monthly panels; some margins shaved costing a few letters and affecting borders, scattered spotting and soiling, final leaf with tissue reinforcement to gutter. Bound in boards of an original sammelband, which at one point included other issues, contemporary brown calf; rebacked with repairs to corners. Housed in custom clamshell case.

First edition and the last of the series written by Franklin.

"In this ... are assembled the cream of [Franklin's] proverbs and wit of the twenty-four previous issues. They are in the form of a speech, delivered by an old man at a country auction, which was soon reprinted as separates under the titles of Father Abraham's Speech, The Way to Wealth, and La Science du Bonhomme Richard." (Grolier American 12). Aphorisms present here include "God helps them that help themselves," and "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise," among others.

It "has been oftener printed and translated ... than any other work from an American pen" (Ford).

REFERENCES:

Miller 657; Evans 7899; Hildeburn 1558; Drake 9796