Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard … for the year 1736

Benjamin Franklin

Poor Richard, 1736. An Almanack For the Year of Christ 1736 ... Fitted to the Latitude of forty degrees, and a Meridian of five hours west from London, but may without sensible error, serve all the adjacent places, even from Newfoundland to South-Carolina. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, at the New Printing-Office near the Market, [1735]

Foolscap 8vo (158 x 91 mm, 8 of 12 leaves). Contemporary ownership signature to title-page, woodcut borders and anatomical man; lacking final four leaves, right margin of title torn costing a few words on verso, long closed tear through anatomical man, some staining, spotting, and browning, burn hole to margin of two leaves, small hole to final leaf. Stitched self-wrappers; some soiling, creasing, and loss. Folding-case.

First edition of the fourth Poor Richard almanac. Rare in any state, the present is the only the second copy to appear at auction in over half a century.

"Poor Richard was one of the four key elements in Franklin's business. The newspaper, the almanac, the position as printer to the legislature, and the willingness to gamble as a printer-publisher-partner all contributed to Franklin's becoming the dominant printer of colonial America. … Today, perhaps the most surprising fact about Poor Richard's almanac is the continuing identification of Franklin with the persona Poor Richard. Franklin used hundreds of personae, but no other one has as frequently been used as synonymous with the actual Franklin. Among the possible reasons are the knowledge that Poor Richard was a mask of Franklin, the popularity of the Poor Richard almanac in the colonial period, the appeal of the persona (yet no one calls Franklin Bridget Saunders), the deliberate play in the almanacs between the persona and the publisher, the concern with identity, and the instability of the persona—but none of these possible considerations explains why Franklin has been so often identified with Poor Richard. … Franklin's egalitarianism permitted him to express and value this insight while playing the simple role of Poor Richard. That imaginary persona flatters us. Franklin as Poor Richard is more accessible than the fiercely hardworking Franklin who was a dominant figure in the second half of the eighteenth century in science, literature, and statesmanship” (Lemay, Life 2:190–191).

REFERENCES

Miller 103; ESTC W22774; Evans 3903; Hildeburn 524; Drake 9587

PROVENANCE

Charles M. and Mary Elizabeth Meredith III (Freeman's, 20 May 2021, lot 10)