Poor Richard's Almanack 1733-1758

Written by Benjamin Franklin

Narrated by Robert Bethune

Since Ben Franklin would have been amazed at audiobooks, let these few details be added: unlike most editions of Poor Richard, this one includes essentially all of the text, not just the aphorisms and sayings. This gives you, Courteous Listener, a much better appreciation of how Franklin wrote and thought.

In particular, you will find that the full body of the Poor Richard almanacs contains a great deal of religious and spiritual thought in which Franklin laid out and propounded his understanding of Christianity as it stood in his day.

Last but not least, since a long parade of sayings, poems, etc., would be dull all strung together, this edition includes snippets of music between them, drawn from about four dozen Colonial-era tunes and imitating the sound of Colonial instruments such as flute, fife, lute, English guitar, music box, and harpsichord.

May you enjoy it and draw benefit from it, as Ben himself would have wished!

A Freshwater Seas audio production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Freshwater Seas
• Release date: Oct 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781933311456

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American writer, printer, politician, postmaster, scientist, and diplomat. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin found success at a young age as editor and printer of the Pennsylvania Gazette, a prominent Philadelphia newspaper. From 1732 to 1758, Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack, a popular yearly pamphlet that earned Franklin much of his wealth. An influential Philadelphian, Franklin founded the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which would become the University of Pennsylvania, in 1751. In addition, Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia, as well as the city’s first fire department. As revolutionary sentiment was on the rise in the thirteen colonies, Franklin traveled to London to advocate on behalf of Americans unhappy with British rule, earning a reputation as a skilled diplomat and shrewd negotiator. During the American Revolution, his relationships with French officials would prove essential for the war effort, the success of which depended upon munitions shipments from France. Over the next few decades, he would serve as the first postmaster general of the United States and as governor of Pennsylvania while maintaining his diplomatic duties. A dedicated and innovative scientist, Franklin is credited with important discoveries regarding the nature of electricity, as well as with inventing the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. A slaveowner for many years, Franklin eventually became an abolitionist. Although he failed to raise the issue during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he led the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and wrote essays on the subject of slavery, which he deemed “an atrocious debasement of human nature.”