Poor Richard Almanac Analysis

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.” (Franklin, 149) This saying, which is still used commonly today, was originally written by one of our founding fathers. Many people do not know this, but recognize the saying. Through history, clever sayings, and facts, Ben Franklin was the mastermind behind Poor Richard’s Almanac that left an impact on thousands of Americans for centuries. Many of his sayings have been repeated generation after generation and some of which are still being studied and used today. Almanacs were very popular back in the 17 and 1800’s and many people considered them necessary for survival. Beings clocks and calendars were few and far between in those days, almanacs served in their place. They usually contained predictions of weather, sunrises, sunsets, and tides while also containing knowledge on farming, animal husbandry, and when to plant gardens. Almanacs differed for different groups of people reading them, but Poor Richard’s Almanac fit the bill for many different types of people to read. It was very diverse in subjects, and contained practical wisdom that anyone would consider helpful “life hints” to live by. It was also very cheap compared to other

Ben was constantly coming up with these awesomely clever sayings and some people became suspicious of this. Eventually, someone accused him of stealing these sayings from other almanacs and printed a chart with similarities proving this (Morgan). Ben simply printed in Poor Richards Almanac that he was borrowing the sayings, and this was quite acceptable back then. His almanac contained pieces of other almanacs and other peoples almanacs contained pieces of his almanac. Back in the 18th century, however, Franklin just had a clever way of re-wording these sayings and that is why he is the one who became famous for have coming up with