The Way To Wealth

BF-2022.033

FRANKLIN, Benjamin. The Way to Wealth or Poor Richard Improved. Paris: Printed for Ant. Aug. Renouard, [Dijon: Printed by P. Causse), 1795. Ford 134. Brunet II: 1382n. "The prettiest edition yet printed." (Ford).

According to Brunet, this is one of only six large paper copies printed.

Franklin's WAY TO WEALTH was originally published in POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC for 1758, and then separately as FATHER ABRAHAM'S SPEECH in 1760. This edition contains several parts: THE WAY TO WEALTH, LA SCIENCE DU BONHOMME RICHARD (French translation of the first-mentioned, LETTRES DE FRANKLIN (in both English and French), LETTRE a MADAME...., DIALOGUE ENTRE LA GOUTTE ET FRANKLIN, QUELQUES MOTS SUR L'AMERIQUE, AVIS A CEUX QUI VOUDROIENT ALLER S'ETABLIR DANS CETTE CONTREE; DR. FRANKLIN'S EPITAPH (in English and French), and J.B. Bodoni's CATALOGUE DES LIVRES IMPRIMES. A very charming book, testifying to the great popularity that Franklin enjoyed in France.

From Catalog II

The distillation of Poor Richard's wisdom into a single extended argument for thrift, industry, and self-improvement -- one of the most widely reprinted texts in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Rush's admiration for Franklin's popular writing was explicit: he saw in it the same project he attempted in his medical pamphlets -- reaching ordinary people with information that would improve their lives and strengthen the republic's civic fabric. The Moral and Physical Thermometer is, in a sense, Rush's version of The Way to Wealth, rendered in medical rather than economic terms.

Accession: BF-2022.033
Date: Various editions, 1758 and later
Author / maker: Franklin, Benjamin
Condition: Large 12mo. 2 ff, engraved frontis. portrait, pp. 29, [1]; [31-35], 36-82, f (original blank), pp. [83]-114, [115-117], 118-144; [145-147], 148-181; [182-183], [1] f, pp. 31, [1]. Original rose paper over boards; paper at spine and corners worn; original paper label on spine. A very good, clean, uncut, large [18cm] copy.
References: Ford 134. Brunet II: 1382n. "The prettiest edition yet printed." (Ford).

In the catalogs: Catalog II, Franklin the Mentor (Cat. IX.4) · Catalog III, The Printer's Text (Cat. III.AT) · Catalog IV, The Sage of Passy and the Memory of Franklin (Cat. IV.AB)