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 the purpose of this work in the title. It appeared continuously from 1732 to 1758. The almanac was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs typically ran to 10,000 per year.
It contained the typical calendar, weather, poems, and astronomical and astrological information that an almanac of the period contained. 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 just a dash of cynicism.
Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, statesman, and publisher, hit a publishing home run with Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacs were very popular books in colonial America. People in the colonies sought them out for the mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements Franklin published in them. Wordplay also had a large role in Poor Richard's Almanack, with many examples surviving into the American vernacular today.
During the final year he published The Way to Wealth, a collection of maxims from the almanac that remains widely-read today.
External links
- Preface, Maxims, and other selections from several editions of Poor Richard's Almanack via the Library of America