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⚫ | '''''Poor Richard's Almanack''''' (sometimes ''Almanac'') was a yearly [[almanack]] published by [[Benjamin Franklin]], who adopted the [[pseudonym]] of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for this purpose. The publication appeared continuously from [[1732]] to [[1758]]. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs reached 10,000 per year.<ref>Goodrich (1829)</ref><ref name="TQ">Oracle ThinkQuest (2003)</ref> |
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⚫ | '''''Poor Richard's Almanack''''' (sometimes ''Almanac'') was a yearly [[ |
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⚫ | Franklin, the [[United States|American]] [[inventor]], [[statesman]], and [[publisher]], 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]], with people in the colonies using them for the mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements they offered.<ref>The History Place (1998)</ref> ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' was popular for all of these reasons, and also for its extensive use of wordplay, with many examples derived from the work surviving in the contemporary American [[vernacular]].<ref>Innovation Philadelphia (2005)</ref> |
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==Content== |
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⚫ | The ''Almanack'' contained the [[calendar]], [[weather]], [[poem]]s, and [[astronomy|astronomical]] and [[astrology|astrological]] information that a typical almanack 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> |
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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 almanack 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> |
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During the final year he published [[The Way to Wealth]], a collection of maxims from the almanac that remains widely-read today. |
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===Poor Richard=== |
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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 almanack maker [[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 almanacks. 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.<ref>Ross (1940), pp. 785-791</ref> |
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In later editions, the homey original Richard 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 almanack, which Richard presented as coming from "Father Abraham".<ref>Ross (1940), pp. 791-794</ref> |
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==History== |
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[[Image:Poor Richard's Almanack Illustrated.png|thumb|right|350px|An 1859 illustrated edition of ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' showed the author surrounded by illustrations of twenty-four of his best-known sayings.]] |
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Franklin began publishing ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' on [[December 28]], [[1732]],<ref name="IHA">Independence Hall Association (1999-2007)</ref> and would go on to publish it for 25 years, bringing his publisher much economic success and popularity. The almanack sold as many as 10,000 copies a year.<ref name="TQ"/> |
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In [[1753]], 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"/> |
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==Serialization== |
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One of the appeals of the ''Almanack'' was that it contained various "news stories" in [[serial]] format, so that readers would purchase it year after year to find out what happened to the [[protagonists]]. 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's edition to show their support for his prediction. The following year, Franklin expressed his regret that he was to 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> |
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==Criticism== |
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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: |
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{{cquote|...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>}} |
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The ''Almanack'' was also a reflection of the 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|Jefferson]], [[John Adams|Adams]], or [[Thomas Paine|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> |
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==Cultural impact== |
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[[Napoleon Bonaparte]] considered the ''Almanack'' significant enough to translate it into [[Italian]], along with the [[Pennsylvania Constitution|Pennsylvania State Constitution]] (which Franklin helped draft), when he established the [[Cisalpine Republic]] in [[1797]].<ref>Dauer (1976), p. 50.</ref> The ''Almanack'' was also twice translated into [[French (language)|French]], reprinted in [[Great Britain]] in [[broadside (printing)|broadside]] for ease of posting, and was distributed by members of the [[clergy]] to poor parishioners. |
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The ''Almanack'' also had a strong cultural and economic impact in the years following publication. In [[Pennsylvania]], changes in monetary policy in regards to foreign expenses were evident for years after the issuing of the ''Almanack''. The [[Louis XVI of France|King of France]] named a ship given to [[John Paul Jones]] after the ''Almanack's'' author - ''[[USS Bonhomme Richard (1765)|Bonhomme Richard]]'', or "Clever Richard." A later almanack by [[Noah Webster]], ''[[The Old Farmer's Almanac]]'', was inspired in part by ''Poor Richard's''.<ref>Kneeland ''et al'' (1894), pp. 46-47</ref> |
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==Notes== |
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{{reflist|3}} |
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==References== |
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<div class="references-small"> |
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*{{cite journal | title=Writing a Federalist Self: Alexander Graydon's Memoirs of a Life | first=Stephen Carl | last=Arch | journal=The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series | volume=52 | issue=3 | month=July | year=1995 | pages=415-432}} |
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*{{cite web | title=Benjamin Franklin and his Times | first=Mary | last=Bellis | accessdate=2007-04-17 | work=About.com | url=http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/Ben_Franklin_3.htm}} |
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*{{cite web | author=Bucknell University | title=100 Years of Carnegie: Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanack | url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/History/Carnegie/franklin/poorrichard.html | date=2004 | accessdate=2007-04-16}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=The Impact of the American Independence and the American Constitution: 1776-1848; with a Brief Epilogue | first=Manning J. | last=Dauer | journal=The Journal of Politics | volume=38 | issue=3 | month=August | year=1976 | pages=37-55}} |
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*{{cite book | author=Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. | title=Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence | year=1829 | language= }} |
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*{{cite journal | title=Commerce and Conversation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic: The Invention of Madeira Wine | first=David | last=Hancock | journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History | volume=29 | issue=2 | month=Autumn | year=1998 | pages=197-219}} |
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*{{cite web | title=Benjamin Franklin Timeline | author= Independence Hall Association | date=1999-2007 | accessdate=2007-04-17 | url=http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/timeline.htm}} |
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*{{cite web | title=Printer and Publisher, Franklin Gives a "Word to the Wise" | author=Innovation Philadelphia | date=2005 | accessdate=2007-04-17 | url=http://www.ipphila.com/iplinks/v4/is3/ar2.htm}} |
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*{{cite book | author=Kneeland, John, Wheeler, Henry Nathan | title=Masterpieces of American Literature | year=1894 | publisher=Houghton Mifflin & Co. | location=United States | language= }} |
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*{{cite web | title=Golden Nuggets from U. S. History: Benjamin Franklin and ''Poor Richard's Almanac'' | first=Frank | last=Laughter | date=1999-2003 | accessdate=2007-04-17 | url=http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/almanac.html}} |
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*{{cite web | first=Alberto | last=Lena | title=Poor Richard's Almanack | work=The Literary Encyclopedia | accessdate=2007-04-16 | date=30 January, 2003 | url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2617}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=The American Image of Benjamin Franklin | first=Richard D. | last=Miles | journal=American Quarterly | volume=9 | issue=2 | month=Summer | year=1957 | pages=117-143}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=Seeing 'New Englandly': Planes of Perception in Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost | first=William | last=Mulder | journal=The New England Quarterly | volume=52 | issue=4 | month=December | year=1979 | pages=550-559}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=Benjamin Franklin and Montaigne | first=Robert | last=Newcomb | journal=Modern Language Notes | volume=72 | issue=7 | month=November | year=1957 | pages=489-491}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=Poor Richard's Debt to Lord Halifax | first=Robert | last=Newcomb | journal=PMLA | volume=70 | issue=3 | month=June | year=1955 | pages=535-539}} |
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*{{cite web| author=Oracle ThinkQuest | url=http://library.thinkquest.org/22254/pra2.htm | title=Poor Richard's Almanac |publisher= ThinkQuest : Library |date=2003|accessdate=2007-04-17}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=The Lost Squares of Dr. Franklin: Ben Franklin's Missing Squares and the Secret of the Magic Circle | first=Paul C. | last=Pasles | journal=The American Mathematical Monthly | volume=108 | issue=6 | month=June-July | year=2001 | pages=489-511}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=The Character of Poor Richard: Its Source and Alteration | first=John F. | last=Ross | journal=PMLA | volume=55 | issue=3 | month=September | year=1940 | pages=785-794}} |
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*{{cite journal | title=Time, Slavery and Plantation Capitalism in the Ante-Bellum American South | first=Mark M. | last=Smith | journal=Past and Present | issue=150 | month=February | year=1996 | pages=142-168}} |
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*{{cite web | title=English Colonial Era: 1700 to 1763 | author=The History Place | date=1998 | accessdate=2007-04-17 | url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/rev-col.htm}} |
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*{{cite web | title=A Calendar History | first=Pip | last=Wilson | date=2006 | accessdate=2007-04-17 | url=http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/calendar_history.html}} |
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*{{cite book | first=Howard | last=Zinn | authorlink=Howard Zinn | title=[[A People's History of the United States]] | publisher=HarperCollins Publishers | location=New York | year=1980}} |
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</div> |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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{{commonscat}} |
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*[http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/loa/bfcont.htm Preface, Maxims, and other selections from several editions of Poor Richard's Almanack] via the Library of America |
*[http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/loa/bfcont.htm Preface, Maxims, and other selections from several editions of Poor Richard's Almanack] via the Library of America |
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*[http://www3.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/his341/pra1753contents.html Scans of 1753 version of ''Poor Richard's Almanac''] via [[Gettysburg College]]. |
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==Bibliography== |
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The prefaces to the Almanack are also reprinted in: |
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* Franklin, Benjamin; J.A. Leo Lemay (ed). ''Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings.'' New York: Library of America, 2005. ISBN 1883011531. |
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[[Category:1700s books]] |
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[[Category:Almanacs]] |
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[[Category:Agriculture books]] |
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[[Category:American non-fiction books]] |
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[[Category:Astronomy books]] |
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[[Category:Proverbs]] |
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[[Category:Benjamin Franklin]] |
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[[fr:Bonhomme Richard]] |
[[fr:Bonhomme Richard]] |
Revision as of 21:05, 17 April 2007
Poor Richard's Almanack (sometimes Almanac) was a yearly almanack published by Benjamin Franklin, who adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for this purpose. The publication appeared continuously from 1732 to 1758. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs reached 10,000 per year.[1][2]
Franklin, the American inventor, statesman, and publisher, achieved success with Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacks were very popular books in colonial America, with people in the colonies using them for the mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements they offered.[3] Poor Richard's Almanack was popular for all of these reasons, and also for its extensive use of wordplay, with many examples derived from the work surviving in the contemporary American vernacular.[4]
Content
The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, and astronomical and astrological information that a typical almanack 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 aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.[5]
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, Lord Halifax, many of whose aphorisms sprang from "[a] basic skepticism directed against the motives of men, manners, and the age." [6] In 1757, Franklin made a selection of these and prefixed them to the almanack 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.[7]
Poor Richard
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 almanack maker 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 almanacks. 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.[8]
In later editions, the homey original Richard 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 almanack, which Richard presented as coming from "Father Abraham".[9]
History
Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack on December 28, 1732,[10] and would go on to publish it for 25 years, bringing his publisher much economic success and popularity. The almanack sold as many as 10,000 copies a year.[2] In 1753, 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.[10]
Serialization
One of the appeals of the Almanack was that it contained various "news stories" in serial format, so that readers would purchase it year after year to find out what happened to the protagonists. 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's edition to show their support for his prediction. The following year, Franklin expressed his regret that he was to 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.[11]
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:
...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.[12]
The Almanack was also a reflection of the 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, Jefferson, Adams, or 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.[13]
Cultural impact
Napoleon Bonaparte considered the Almanack significant enough to translate it into Italian, along with the Pennsylvania State Constitution (which Franklin helped draft), when he established the Cisalpine Republic in 1797.[14] The Almanack was also twice translated into French, reprinted in Great Britain in broadside for ease of posting, and was distributed by members of the clergy to poor parishioners.
The Almanack also had a strong cultural and economic impact in the years following publication. In Pennsylvania, changes in monetary policy in regards to foreign expenses were evident for years after the issuing of the Almanack. The King of France named a ship given to John Paul Jones after the Almanack's author - Bonhomme Richard, or "Clever Richard." A later almanack by Noah Webster, The Old Farmer's Almanac, was inspired in part by Poor Richard's.[15]
Notes
- ^ Goodrich (1829)
- ^ a b Oracle ThinkQuest (2003)
- ^ The History Place (1998)
- ^ Innovation Philadelphia (2005)
- ^ Pasles (2001), pp. 492-493
- ^ Newcomb (1955), pp. 535-536
- ^ Wilson (2006)
- ^ Ross (1940), pp. 785-791
- ^ Ross (1940), pp. 791-794
- ^ a b Independence Hall Association (1999-2007)
- ^ Laughter (1999-2003)
- ^ Miles (1957), p. 141.
- ^ Zinn, 1980, 44.
- ^ Dauer (1976), p. 50.
- ^ Kneeland et al (1894), pp. 46-47
References
- Arch, Stephen Carl (1995). "Writing a Federalist Self: Alexander Graydon's Memoirs of a Life". The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series. 52 (3): 415–432.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Bellis, Mary. "Benjamin Franklin and his Times". About.com. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- Bucknell University (2004). "100 Years of Carnegie: Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanack". Retrieved 2007-04-16.
- Dauer, Manning J. (1976). "The Impact of the American Independence and the American Constitution: 1776-1848; with a Brief Epilogue". The Journal of Politics. 38 (3): 37–55.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. (1829). Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence.
- Hancock, David (1998). "Commerce and Conversation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic: The Invention of Madeira Wine". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 29 (2): 197–219.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Independence Hall Association (1999–2007). "Benjamin Franklin Timeline". Retrieved 2007-04-17.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date format (link) - Innovation Philadelphia (2005). "Printer and Publisher, Franklin Gives a "Word to the Wise"". Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- Kneeland, John, Wheeler, Henry Nathan (1894). Masterpieces of American Literature. United States: Houghton Mifflin & Co.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Laughter, Frank (1999–2003). "Golden Nuggets from U. S. History: Benjamin Franklin and Poor Richard's Almanac". Retrieved 2007-04-17.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date format (link) - Lena, Alberto (30 January, 2003). "Poor Richard's Almanack". The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - Miles, Richard D. (1957). "The American Image of Benjamin Franklin". American Quarterly. 9 (2): 117–143.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Mulder, William (1979). "Seeing 'New Englandly': Planes of Perception in Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost". The New England Quarterly. 52 (4): 550–559.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Newcomb, Robert (1957). "Benjamin Franklin and Montaigne". Modern Language Notes. 72 (7): 489–491.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Newcomb, Robert (1955). "Poor Richard's Debt to Lord Halifax". PMLA. 70 (3): 535–539.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Oracle ThinkQuest (2003). "Poor Richard's Almanac". ThinkQuest : Library. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- Pasles, Paul C. (2001). "The Lost Squares of Dr. Franklin: Ben Franklin's Missing Squares and the Secret of the Magic Circle". The American Mathematical Monthly. 108 (6): 489–511.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Ross, John F. (1940). "The Character of Poor Richard: Its Source and Alteration". PMLA. 55 (3): 785–794.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - Smith, Mark M. (1996). "Time, Slavery and Plantation Capitalism in the Ante-Bellum American South". Past and Present (150): 142–168.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - The History Place (1998). "English Colonial Era: 1700 to 1763". Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- Wilson, Pip (2006). "A Calendar History". Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- Zinn, Howard (1980). A People's History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
External links
- Preface, Maxims, and other selections from several editions of Poor Richard's Almanack via the Library of America
- Scans of 1753 version of Poor Richard's Almanac via Gettysburg College.
Bibliography
The prefaces to the Almanack are also reprinted in:
- Franklin, Benjamin; J.A. Leo Lemay (ed). Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings. New York: Library of America, 2005. ISBN 1883011531.