Details
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN. Poor Richard Improved: Being an Almanack...for the Year of our Lord 1758. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall [1757]. 12mo, [36] pp., STITCHED AS ISSUED, UNCUT, leaf C2 with small paper flaw affecting a few letters, occasional minor staining, brown morocco pull-off case. FIRST EDITION -- AND A REMARKABLE COPY -- OF THE MOST FAMOUS OF THE POOR RICHARD ALMANACS AND THE LAST OF THE SERIES TO BE WRITTEN BY FRANKLIN. WOODCUT ORNAMENTS. DRAKE 9796; MILLER 657; EVANS 7899; STREETER SALE II, 963 (REBOUND IN MODERN MOROCCO); GROLIER/ENGLISH 51.
"IN THIS...ARE ASSEMBLED [IN THE PREFACE, WHICH IS CONTINUED THROUGH THE TWELVE MONTHS] THE CREAM OF [FRANKLIN'S] PROVERBS AND WIT OF THE TWENTY-FOUR PREVIOUS ISSUES. THEY ARE IN THE FORM OF A SPEECH, DELIVERED BY AN OLD MAN AT A COUNTRY AUCTION, WHICH WAS SOON REPRINTED AS SEPARATES UNDER THE TITLES OF FATHER ABRAHAM'S SPEECH, THE WAY TO WEALTH, AND LA SCIENCE DU BONHOMME RICHARD. FORD, IN HIS FRANKLIN BIBLIOGRAPHY...STATES THAT IT 'HAS BEEN OFTENER PRINTED AND TRANSLATED...THAN ANY OTHER WORK FROM AN AMERICAN PEN.' VAN DOREN COMMENTS, 'IT LONG AGO PASSED FROM LITERATURE INTO THE GENERAL HUMAN SPEECH'"--GROLIER/AMERICAN 12.
PROVENANCE: SETH SPRAGUE TERRY AND WARD E. TERRY, BOOKPLATE (SALE, AMERICAN ART ASSOCIATION-ANDERSON GALLERIES, 4 DECEMBER 1935, LOT 149) - FRANK J. HOGAN, BOOKPLATE (SALE, PARKE-BERNET, 23 JANUARY 1945, LOT 191) - HAROLD GREENHILL, BOOKPLATE - H. BRADLEY MARTIN (SALE, SOTHEBY'S, NEW YORK, 31 JANUARY 1990, LOT 2517).
"IN THIS...ARE ASSEMBLED [IN THE PREFACE, WHICH IS CONTINUED THROUGH THE TWELVE MONTHS] THE CREAM OF [FRANKLIN'S] PROVERBS AND WIT OF THE TWENTY-FOUR PREVIOUS ISSUES. THEY ARE IN THE FORM OF A SPEECH, DELIVERED BY AN OLD MAN AT A COUNTRY AUCTION, WHICH WAS SOON REPRINTED AS SEPARATES UNDER THE TITLES OF FATHER ABRAHAM'S SPEECH, THE WAY TO WEALTH, AND LA SCIENCE DU BONHOMME RICHARD. FORD, IN HIS FRANKLIN BIBLIOGRAPHY...STATES THAT IT 'HAS BEEN OFTENER PRINTED AND TRANSLATED...THAN ANY OTHER WORK FROM AN AMERICAN PEN.' VAN DOREN COMMENTS, 'IT LONG AGO PASSED FROM LITERATURE INTO THE GENERAL HUMAN SPEECH'"--GROLIER/AMERICAN 12.
PROVENANCE: SETH SPRAGUE TERRY AND WARD E. TERRY, BOOKPLATE (SALE, AMERICAN ART ASSOCIATION-ANDERSON GALLERIES, 4 DECEMBER 1935, LOT 149) - FRANK J. HOGAN, BOOKPLATE (SALE, PARKE-BERNET, 23 JANUARY 1945, LOT 191) - HAROLD GREENHILL, BOOKPLATE - H. BRADLEY MARTIN (SALE, SOTHEBY'S, NEW YORK, 31 JANUARY 1990, LOT 2517).