"'Tis hard (but glorious) to be poor and honest. An empty Sack can hardly stand upright; but if it does, 'tis a stout one!"
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard, 1750
On December 19, 1732 Benjamin Franklin first published his Poor Richard's Almanack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A collection of proverbs as well as a guide to weather conditions, Franklin published the almanac under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. Most of the material was not written by Franklin himself but collected from a variety of sources. Poor Richard's Almanack was widely popular, selling over 10,000 copies annually and ceased publication in 1757.
