MI Printing History: Poor Richard's Almanac

Poor Richard's Almanack was a yearly almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, statesman, publisher and printer who adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" for this purpose. Poor Richard's Almanack was printed continually from 1732 to 1758. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies. Even with much competition print runs of 10,000 per year were claimed.

Ben Franklin, achieved much of his financial success with Poor Richard's Almanack. His almanac was very popular in colonial America, with people reading it for the calendar, seasonal weather forecasts, poems, sayings, astronomical and astrological information it contained. Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise, and the Almanack from 1750 features contained 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.

One of Ben Franklin sayings from the almanac is often quoted even today, "Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." However it should be noted that this quote, like many used in the almanac were not original. Versions of this proverb have been around for much longer. The exact version was first published in 1639 in the book Parœmiologia Anglo-Latina or 'Proverbs English, and Latin'.