Poor Richard: The Almanacks for the Years 1733-1758, Wherein are retain'd in their Entirety the Author's Prefaces, Proverbs, Verses, & Entertaining Remarks; Together with those Chronological, Historical, and Scientific Observations which the Author has i…

xi, [3], 300 pp. Illustrations by Norman Rockwell. Franklin's Autobiography is one of the most famous works in American literature. He started it as a private collection of anecdotes for his son, but soon it was transformed into a work of history, both personal and national, revealing Franklin as the man who, as Herman Melville said, possessed "deep worldly wisdom and polished Italian tact, gleaming under an air of Arcadian unaffectedness. The publication appeared continually from 1732 to 1758. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs reached 10,000 per year. 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. 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.