On Dec. 28, 1732, at just 27 years of age, Benjamin Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac. He went on to publish it annually for 25 years, and it garnered him wealth and fame. It also played a big part in elevating him to the status of “the first American.”
The Almanac was published under the pseudonym Richard Saunders and was the source of many pithy insights on timeless subjects related to human nature, many of which can be applied to government and the principles of liberty today.
It also served as a sort of guide for daily living, combining a calendar, and weather predictions, along with entertaining content. Each edition included practical features including tide charts, phases of the moon, and astrological observations useful for farmers and sailors.
Poor Richard’s was packed full of witty sayings, proverbs, and aphorisms meant to convey moral lessons and practical advice for living. Some of these sayings became “conventional wisdom” over time, including, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” and, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
THE FIRST EDITION
The first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac set the tone for future publications, including several sayings that dig to the root of human nature and that should be remembered when placing people in positions of power.
- “Distrust and caution are the parents of security”
- “There is no little enemy”
- “Anoint a villain and he’ll stab you, stab him and he’ll anoint you.”
He also included several insights on life that remain well-known today, including, “Eat to live, and not live to eat,” and, “He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas,” along with practical wisdom, including, “Hunger never saw bad bread.”
Poor Richard’s Almanac was first mentioned in the Pennsylvania Gazette on Dec. 19, 1732, as “just published.”
On Dec. 28, the Gazette ran the following announcement introducing the Almanac.
“Just Published, FOR 1733: Poor Richard: An Almanack containing the Lunations, Eclipses, Planets Motions and Aspects, Weather, Sun and Moon’s rising and setting, Highwater, &c. besides many pleasant and witty Verses, Jests and Sayings.”
He also teased readers suggesting that the Almanac revealed the “prediction of the Death of his friend Mr. Titan Leeds,” one of Franklin’s biggest competitors in the printing world.
The introduction to the first edition put Franklin’s wit and pithiness on full display as he described his reasons for publishing it.
“I might in this place attempt to gain thy Favour, by declaring that I write Almanacks with no other View than that of the publick Good; but in this I should not be sincere; and Men are now a-days too wise to be deceiv’d by Pretences how specious soever.”
He went on to declare, “I am excessive poor, and my Wife, good Woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud,” and asserted that his wife was the motivator for publishing his work.
“She cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her Shift of Tow, while I do nothing but gaze at the Stars; and has threatned more than once to burn all my Books and Rattling-Traps (as she calls my Instruments) if I do not make some profitable Use of them for the good of my Family. The Printer has offer’d me some considerable share of the Profits, and I have thus begun to comply with my Dame’s desire.”
FRANKLIN RIDES POOR RICHARD’S TO FAME AND FORTUNE
Over the next 20-plus years, Poor Richard’s Almanac grew in popularity and circulation. Along with its success, Franklin gained fame, wealth, and popularity.
From its first issues, Poor Richard’s garnered widespread interest throughout the colonies, with sales reaching 10,000 copies per year. Publication of the Almanac turned out to be an economic boon for Franklin.
In his autobiography, Franklin noted, “I endeavour’d to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reap’d considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand.” [Emphasis added]
It remains unclear exactly how much Franklin took in from the endeavor, but even if he only made a small profit, he likely earned an annual income of several hundred pounds, a significant income in colonial America.
The recognition Franklin received publishing Poor Richard’s also helped propel him into the public sphere and jump-started his political career.
EDUCATING THE MASSES
In his autobiography, Franklin reflected on the widespread popularity and reach of his almanac, “Observing that it was generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province being without it.”
Franklin pointed out that it was one of the few printed materials people had widespread access to at a time when books were expensive and often inaccessible to the general public. Given its widespread circulation, Franklin viewed his almanac as an important educational tool.
“I consider’d it as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely any other books…”
Franklin pointed out that he “therefore filled all the little spaces that occurr’d between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue…”
His decision to include proverbs focusing on virtues such as industry and frugality reflected his belief that financial stability could support moral character. He saw wealth not as an end in itself, but as a means to foster the virtue that would lead to a well-ordered society.
Franklin included a proverb in his autobiography to illustrate the point.
“It being more difficult for a man in want, to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.”
Poor Richard reflected Franklin’s view that promoting self-sufficiency and financial prudence would lead people to act more virtuously and responsibly.
WHAT’S IN THE NAME?
Calling his publication “Poor Richard’s Almanac” was a brilliant marketing strategy.
The name was a nod to Poor Robin’s Almanack, a popular British publication that had been in print since the 1633s.
The title also had an “everyman’s appeal.” This was enhanced by Franklin’s pen name Richard Saunders.
The name “Saunders” was also borrowed from a well-known astrologer and almanac-maker in seventeenth-century England. The original Saunders published Rider’s British Merlin, a popular London almanac that continued to be published throughout the eighteenth century.
Franklin developed a humble, down-to-earth persona for the almanac’s author, which appealed to “common people.”
It was based in part on Jonathan Swift’s pseudonymous character, “Isaac Bickerstaff.” Like Bickerstaff, Saunders claimed to be a philomath (a lover of learning and study) and an astrologer. And like Swift’s fictional character, Saunders often predicted the deaths of other astrologers who wrote almanacs.
However, Franklin avoided Bickerstaff’s sharp satirical edge, opting instead for a likable, “everyman” character dispensing wit and wisdom that would be relatable to his audience.
TIMELESS WISDOM
Franklin’s wisdom covered a wide range of topics from practical advice for living to observations on human nature.
Very few of the sayings in Poor Richard’s Almanac were original to Franklin. Instead, he was a master of compiling and revising things he found in other English anthologies.
As Charles Meister described it in his paper, Franklin as a Proverb Stylist, Franklin, “delighted his readers because of the way he carefully selected and skillfully revised the wise sayings and epigrams, eliminating superfluous words, smoothing and balancing awkward phrases, replacing vague and meaningless generalities with his own specific, sharp, and homely terms.”
Poor Richard’s insights into human nature and power are worth considering in the context of government and the struggle for liberty today.
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
Distrust & caution are the parents of security.
Fools multiply folly.
The Wolf sheds his Coat once a Year, his Disposition never.
There’s none deceived but he that trusts.
Force shites upon Reason’s Back.
To whom thy secret thou dost tell, to him thy freedom thou dost sell.
Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed.
The second Vice is Lying; the first is Running in Debt.
Sudden Power is apt to be insolent, Sudden Liberty saucy; that behaves best which has grown gradually.
You may give a Man an Office, but you cannot give him Discretion.
Would you persuade, speak of Interest, not of Reason.
He that cannot obey, cannot command.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
If you wou’d be reveng’d of your enemy, govern your self.
A countryman between 2 Lawyers, is like a fish between two cats.
He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.
An innocent Plowman is more worthy than a vicious Prince.
Laws like to Cobwebs catch small Flies, Great one break thro’ before your eyes.
Humility makes great men twice honourable.
There’s none deceived but he that trusts.
The greatest monarch on the proudest throne, is oblig’d to sit upon his own arse.
Those who in quarrels interpose, Must often wipe a bloody nose.
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