Benjamin Franklin | An extremely rare eighteenth-century French edition of "The Way To Wealth"

Benjamin Franklin

La science du Bonhomme Richard. Boston [but Paris?]: De l’Imprimerie des Etats-Unis de l’Amérique, [ca. 1788]

12mo (144 x 93 mm). A few pale spots and stains. Stitched in original printed paper wrapper; very light soiling, a short split at the tail of the spine, a crease at the head of the spine on the rear wrapper, a tiny loss near the corner on the front, altogether an uncommonly well-preserved example of a fragile chapbook.

An extremely rare eighteenth-century French chapbook edition of The Way to Wealth. This edition of Franklin's popular essay on work ethic and frugality was published under a false Boston imprint, but was likely printed in Paris.

We locate a single copy at the Boston Public Library. It is not included in Ford's bibliography, but Kenneth Carpenter notes it in his 2007 bibliographical study of The Way to Wealth, provides an estimated date, and designates it as the fifth French edition.

REFERENCES

Carpenter Fr1788.1