Editing Poor Richard's Almanack

{{Short description|Yearly work by Benjamin Franklin (1732–1758)}}
{{Distinguish|Richard's Poor Almanac}}
{{Italic title}}
[[File:Poor Richard Almanack 1739.jpg|thumb|alt=A front page of the Poor Richard's Almanack for the "year of Christ 1739", written by Richard Sanders and printed by Benjamin Franklin.|right|1739 Edition of ''Poor Richard's Almanack'']]

'''''Poor Richard's Almanack''''' (sometimes ''Almanac'') was a yearly [[almanac]] published by [[Benjamin Franklin]], who adopted the [[pseudonym]] of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for this purpose. The publication appeared continually from 1732 to 1758. It sold exceptionally well for a pamphlet published in the [[Thirteen Colonies]]; print runs reached 10,000 per year.<ref>[[#isaacspn2004|Isaacson, 2004]], pp. 94-101</ref> 

Franklin, the American [[inventor]], [[wikt:statesman|statesman]], and accomplished [[Early American publishers and printers|publisher and printer]], achieved success with ''Poor Richard's Almanack''. Almanacks were very popular books in [[History of the United States (1776–1789)#Declaration of Independence|colonial America]], offering a mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements.<ref>The History Place (1998)</ref> ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' was also popular for its extensive use of [[wordplay]], and some of the witty phrases coined in the work survive in the contemporary American [[vernacular]].<ref>Innovation Philadelphia (2005)</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=September 2023}}

==History==
[[File:Oliver Pelton - Benjamin Franklin - Poor Richard's Almanac Illustrated.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A nineteenth-century print based on ''Poor Richard's Almanack'', showing the author surrounded by twenty-four illustrations of many of his best-known sayings]]

On December 28, 1732, [[Benjamin Franklin]] announced in ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'' that he had just printed and published the first edition of ''The Poor Richard'', by Richard Saunders, Philomath.<ref>[[#miller1961|Miller, 1961]], p. 97</ref> Franklin published the first ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' on December 28, 1732,<ref name="IHA">Independence Hall Association (1999–2007)</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=September 2023}} and continued to publish new editions for 25 years, bringing him much economic success and popularity. The almanack sold as many as 10,000 copies a year.<ref name="TQ">Oracle ThinkQuest (2003)</ref> In 1735, upon the death of Franklin's brother, James, Franklin sent 500 copies of ''Poor Richard's'' to his widow for free, so that she could make money selling them.<ref name="IHA"/>

==Contents==
The ''Almanack'' contained the [[calendar]], [[weather]], [[poem]]s, [[sayings]], and [[astronomical]] and [[astrological]] information that a typical almanac of the period would contain. Franklin also included the occasional [[mathematical exercise]], and the ''Almanack'' from 1750 features an early example of [[demographics]]. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's [[aphorism]]s and [[proverb]]s, many of which live on in [[American English]]. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.<ref>Pasles (2001), pp. 492–493</ref>

In the spaces that occurred between noted calendar days, Franklin included proverbial sentences about industry and frugality. Several of these sayings were borrowed from an earlier writer, [[George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax|Lord Halifax]], many of whose aphorisms sprang from, "... [a] basic skepticism directed against the motives of men, manners, and the age."<ref>Newcomb (1955), pp. 535–536</ref> In 1757, Franklin made a selection of these and prefixed them to the almanac as the address of an old man to the people attending an auction. This was later published as ''[[The Way to Wealth]]'', and was popular in both America and England.<ref>Wilson (2006)</ref>

==Poor Richard==
Franklin borrowed the name "Richard Saunders" from the seventeenth-century author of ''[[Rider's British Merlin]]'', a popular London almanac which continued to be published throughout the eighteenth century. Franklin created the Poor Richard persona based in part on [[Jonathan Swift]]'s pseudonymous character, "[[Isaac Bickerstaff]]". In a series of three letters in 1708 and 1709, known as the Bickerstaff papers, "Bickerstaff" predicted the imminent death of astrologer and almanac maker [[John Partridge (astrologer)|John Partridge]]. Franklin's Poor Richard, like Bickerstaff, claimed to be a [[philomath]] and [[astrologer]] and, like Bickerstaff, predicted the deaths of actual astrologers who wrote traditional almanacs. In the early editions of ''Poor Richard's Almanack'', predicting and falsely reporting the deaths of these astrologers—much to their dismay—was something of a running joke. However, Franklin's endearing character of "Poor" Richard Saunders, along with his wife Bridget, was ultimately used to frame (if comically) what was intended as a serious resource that people would buy year after year. To that end, the satirical edge of Swift's character is largely absent in Poor Richard. Richard was presented as distinct from Franklin himself, occasionally referring to the latter as his printer.{{sfn|Ross|1940|p=785–791}}

In later editions, the original Richard Saunders character gradually disappeared, replaced by a Poor Richard, who largely stood in for Franklin and his own practical scientific and business perspectives. By 1758, the original character was even more distant from the practical advice and proverbs of the almanac, which Franklin presented as coming from "Father Abraham," who in turn got his sayings from Poor Richard.{{sfn|Ross|1940|p=791–794}}

==Serialization==
One of the appeals of the ''Almanack'' was that it contained various "news stories" in [[Serial (literature)|serial]] format, so that readers would purchase it year after year to find out what happened to the [[protagonist]]s. One of the earliest of these was the "prediction" that the author's "good Friend and Fellow-Student, Mr. [[Titan Leeds]]" would die on October 17 of that year, followed by the rebuttal of Mr. Leeds himself that he would die, not on the 17th, but on October 26. Appealing to his readers, Franklin urged them to purchase the next year or two or three or four editions to show their support for his prediction. The following year, Franklin expressed his regret that he was too ill to learn whether he or Leeds was correct. Nevertheless, the ruse had its desired effect: people purchased the ''Almanack'' to find out who was correct.<ref>Laughter (1999–2003)</ref> (Later editions of the ''Almanack'' would claim that Leeds had died and that the person claiming to be Leeds was an impostor; Leeds, in fact, died in 1738, which prompted Franklin to applaud the supposed impostor for ending his ruse.)

==Criticism==
For some writers the content of the ''Almanack'' became inextricably linked with Franklin's character—and not always to favorable effect. Both [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and [[Herman Melville]] caricatured the ''Almanack''—and Franklin by extension—in their writings, while [[James Russell Lowell]], reflecting on the public unveiling in [[Boston]] of a statue to honor Franklin, wrote:

<blockquote> ... we shall find out that Franklin was born in Boston, and invented being struck with lightning and printing and the Franklin medal, and that he had to move to [[Philadelphia]] because great men were so plenty in Boston that he had no chance, and that he revenged himself on his native town by saddling it with the [[Franklin stove]], and that he discovered the almanac, and that a penny saved is a penny lost, or something of the kind.<ref>Miles (1957), p. 141.</ref></blockquote>

The ''Almanack'' was also a reflection of the [[social norms]] and [[social mores]] of his times, rather than a philosophical document setting a path for new-freedoms, as the works of Franklin's contemporaries, [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[John Adams]], and [[Thomas Paine]] were. Historian [[Howard Zinn]] offers, as an example, the adage "Let thy maidservant be faithful, strong, and homely" as indication of Franklin's belief in the legitimacy of controlling the sexual lives of servants for the economic benefit of their masters.<ref>Zinn, 1980, 44.</ref>

At least one modern biographer has published the claim that Franklin "stole", not borrowed, the name of Richard Saunders from the deceased astrologer-doctor. Franklin also "borrowed—apparently without asking—and adapted the title of an almanac his brother [[James Franklin (printer)|James Franklin]] was publishing at Newport: ''Poor Robin's Almanack'' (itself appropriated from a seventeenth-century almanac published under the same title in London)".<ref>Brands, H. W. (2000) ''The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin'' First Anchor Books Edition, March 2002. {{ISBN|0-385-49540-4}}.</ref>

==Cultural impact==
[[Louis XVI of France]] gave a ship to [[John Paul Jones]] who renamed it after the ''Almanack''{{'s}} author—''[[USS Bonhomme Richard (1765)|Bonhomme Richard]]'', or "Goodman (that is, a polite title of address for a commoner who is not a member of the gentry) Richard" (the first of [[USS Bonhomme Richard|several US warships]] so named).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/lhd6/Pages/history.aspx|title=The Frigate BonHomme Richard, United States Navy Website, History |access-date=2017-08-05 |archive-date=2017-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918064647/http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/lhd6/Pages/history.aspx|url-status=dead }}</ref> The ''Almanack'' was translated into Italian, along with the [[Pennsylvania Constitution|Pennsylvania State Constitution]] (which Franklin helped draft) at the establishment of the [[Cisalpine Republic]].<ref>Dauer (1976), p. 50.</ref> It was also twice translated into French, reprinted in Great Britain in [[broadside (printing)|broadside]] for ease of posting, and was distributed by members of the [[clergy]] to poor parishioners. It was the first work of English literature to be translated into [[Slovene language|Slovene]],<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2003/v48/n1-2/006972ar.html|title=Domestication and Foreignization in Translating American Prose for Slovenian Children|journal=Meta: Translators' Journal|volume=48|issue=1–2|date=May 2003|pages=250–265|issn=1492-1421|first=Darja|last=Mazi-Leskovar|publisher=Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal|doi=10.7202/006972ar|doi-access=|url-access=subscription}}</ref> translated in 1812 by [[Janez Nepomuk Primic]] (1785–1823).<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.srl.si/arhiv/2002-01/pdf/sumrada.pdf|title=Janez Nepomuk Primic in ustanovitev stolice za slovenski jezik na liceju v Gradcu 1811|language=sl, en|trans-title=Janez Nepomuk Primic and the Establishment of the Chair of Slovene at the ''Lyzeum'' in Graz in 1811|journal=Slavistična revija [Journal of Slavic Linguistics]|volume=50|date=January–March 2002|issue=1|issn=1855-7570}}</ref>

The ''Almanack'' also had a strong cultural and economic impact in the years following publication. In [[Pennsylvania]], changes in monetary policy in regard to foreign expenses were evident for years after the issuing of the ''Almanack''. Later writers such as [[Noah Webster]] were inspired by the almanac, and it went on to influence other publications of this type such as the ''[[Old Farmer's Almanac]]''.<ref>Kneeland ''et al.'' (1891), pp. 46–47</ref>

Sociologist [[Max Weber]] considered ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' and Franklin to reflect the "spirit of capitalism" in a form of "classical" purity." This is why he filled the pages of Chapter 2 of his 1905 book ''[[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]'' with illustrative quotations from Franklin's almanacks. <ref>[https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/weber/protestant-ethic/ch02.htm Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Chapter 2]</ref>

Numerous [[American almanacs|farmer's almanacs]] trace their format and tradition to ''Poor Richard's Almanack;'' the ''[[Old Farmer's Almanac]]'', for instance, has included a picture of Franklin on its cover since 1851.

In 1958, the United States mobilized its naval forces in response to an [[Attack on Richard Nixon's motorcade|attack on Vice President Richard Nixon]] in [[Caracas]], Venezuela. The operation was code-named "Poor Richard".<ref>{{cite book |last=Perlstein |first=Rick |title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |date=29 July 2010 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4516-0626-3 |page=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dM_enWzoghoC&pg=PA49 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[The Papers of Benjamin Franklin]]''

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|20em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Further|Bibliography of Benjamin Franklin}}
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |first=Stephen Carl |last=Arch |date=July 1995 |title=Writing a Federalist self: Alexander Graydon's memoirs of a life |journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]] |series= 3rd Series |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=415–432 |doi=10.2307/2947293 |jstor=2947293 |publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture}}
* {{cite web |first=Mary |last=Bellis |title=Benjamin Franklin and his Times |access-date=2007-04-17 |website=About.com |url=http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/Ben_Franklin_3.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130116081449/http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/Ben_Franklin_3.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 16, 2013}}
* {{cite web |title=Franklin: ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' |series=Men of Carnegie |website=100&nbsp;Years of Carnegie |year=2004 |publisher=Bucknell University |url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/History/Carnegie/franklin/poorrichard.html |access-date=2007-04-16}}
* {{cite journal |first=Manning J. |last=Dauer |date=August 1976 |title=The impact of the American independence and the American Constitution: 1776–1848; with a brief epilogue |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=37–55 |doi=10.2307/2129573 |jstor=2129573 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|s2cid=154053226 }}
* {{cite book |last=Goodrich |first=Charles A., Rev. |year=1829 |title=Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence |publisher=W. Reed & co. |url=https://archive.org/details/livessignerstod02goodgoog}}
* {{cite journal |first=David |last=Hancock |date=Autumn 1998 |title=Commerce and conversation in the eighteenth-century Atlantic: The invention of Madeira wine |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=197–219 |doi=10.1162/002219598551670|s2cid=143289729 }}
* {{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin Timeline |collaboration=Independence Hall Association |date=1999–2007 |access-date=2007-04-17 |url=http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/timeline.htm}}
* {{cite web |title=Printer and publisher, Franklin gives a "Word to the Wise" |collaboration=Innovation Philadelphia |year=2005 |access-date=2013-04-22 |url=http://www.ipphila.com/iplinks/v4/is3/ar2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516101257/http://www.ipphila.com/iplinks/v4/is3/ar2.htm |archive-date=2006-05-16}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kneeland |first1=John |last2=Wheeler |first2=Henry Nathan |title=Masterpieces of American Literature |year=1891 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin & Co. |location=United States |url=https://archive.org/details/masterpiecesame01wheegoog}}
* {{cite web |first=Frank |last=Laughter |date=1999–2003 |title=Golden nuggets from U.S. history: '''Benjamin Franklin''' and ''Poor Richard's Almanac'' |website=Laughter genealogy |url=http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/almanac.html |access-date=2007-04-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929163829/http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/almanac.html |archive-date=2007-09-29}}
* {{cite book |last=Franklin |first=Benjamin |editor-first=J.A. Leo |editor-last=Lemay |year=2005 |title=Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings |place=New York |publisher=Library of America |isbn=1-883011-53-1}}
* {{cite web |last=Lena |first=Alberto |date=30 January 2003 |title=Poor Richard's Almanack |website=The Literary Encyclopedia |access-date=2007-04-16 |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2617}}
* {{cite journal |last=Miles |first=Richard D. |date=Summer 1957 |title=The American image of Benjamin Franklin |journal=American Quarterly |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=117–143 |doi=10.2307/2710628 |jstor=2710628 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}
* {{cite journal |last=Miller |first=C. William |title=Franklin's "Poor Richard Almanacs": Their Printing and Publication |journal=Studies in Bibliography |pages=97–115 |publisher=Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia |volume=14 |year=1961 |jstor=40371300 |doi= |ref=miller1961}}
* {{cite journal |last=Mulder |first=William |date=December 1979 |title=Seeing 'New Englandly': Planes of Perception in Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=550–559 |doi=10.2307/365757 |jstor=365757 |publisher=The New England Quarterly, Inc.}}
* {{cite journal |last=Newcomb |first=Robert |date=November 1957 |title=Benjamin Franklin and Montaigne |journal=Modern Language Notes |volume=72 |issue=7 |pages=489–491 |doi=10.2307/3043511 |jstor=3043511 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}
* {{cite journal |last=Newcomb |first=Robert |date=June 1955 |title=Poor Richard's debt to Lord Halifax |journal=PMLA |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=535–539 |doi=10.2307/460054 |jstor=460054 |publisher=Modern Language Association|s2cid=163553029 }}
* {{cite web |title=Poor Richard's Almanac |year=2003 |website=Oracle ThinkQuest |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/22254/pra2.htm |publisher=ThinkQuest |series=Library |access-date=2007-04-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417102843/http://library.thinkquest.org/22254/pra2.htm |archive-date=2007-04-17}}
* {{cite journal |first=Paul C. |last=Pasles |date=June–July 2001 |title=The lost squares of Dr.&nbsp;Franklin: Ben Franklin's missing squares and the secret of the magic circle |journal=The American Mathematical Monthly |volume=108 |issue=6 |pages=489–511 |doi=10.2307/2695704 |jstor=2695704 |publisher=Mathematical Association of America}}
* {{cite journal |first=John F. |last=Ross |date=September 1940 |title=The character of Poor Richard: Its source and alteration |journal=PMLA |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=785–794 |doi=10.2307/458740 |jstor=458740 |publisher=Modern Language Association |s2cid=163353553 }}
* {{cite journal |first=Mark M. |last=Smith |date=February 1996 |title=Time, slavery and plantation capitalism in the ante-bellum American south |journal=Past and Present |issue=150 |pages=142–168 |doi=10.1093/past/150.1.142}}
* {{cite web |title=English colonial era: 1700 to 1763 |website=The History Place |year=1998 |access-date=2007-04-17 |url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/rev-col.htm}}
* {{cite web |first=Pip |last=Wilson |year=2006 |title=A calendar history |url=http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/calendar_history.html |access-date=2007-04-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070309035303/http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/calendar_history.html |archive-date=2007-03-09}}
* {{cite book |first=Howard |last=Zinn |authorlink=Howard Zinn |year=1980 |title=[[A People's History of the United States]] |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers |location=New York}}
* {{cite book |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |title=Benjamin Franklin: an American life |authorlink=Walter Isaacson |publisher=New York: Simon & Schuster |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-6848-07614 |url=https://archive.org/details/benjaminfranklin0000isaa |ref=isaacson2004}}

'''See also:'''
* {{cite book |last=Franklin |first=Benjamin |authorlink=Benjamin Franklin |editor=Brooks, Van Wyck |title=Poor Richard: The Almanacks for the years 1733-1758 |volume= |publisher=New York: Paddington Press |year=1976 |isbn=9780846701200 |orig-year=1733-1758 |url=https://archive.org/details/poorrichardalman0000fran_s1a9/page/n5/mode/2up= |ref=poor'richard}}

{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons}}
* {{librivox book | title= Poor Richard's Almanack | author=benjamin franklin }} 
{{wikiquote}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinremix/sets/72057594064843539/ |title=High-Quality Scanned Images of several pages of ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' |website=flickr.com|date=14 February 2006 }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.rarebookroom.org/ |website=Rare Book Room |title=Complete high-quality images for most of the almanacs}} (Click "find by author" and select "Franklin" for a complete list.)

{{Benjamin Franklin}}
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