Benjamin Franklin

"Poor Richard, 1737, an almanac for the Year of Christ 1737, by Richard Saunders, Philom." [Philadelphia: Franklin, 1736].	Westminster Assembly of Divines, The Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, with the scripture proofs at large.... Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, 1745.

Born in Boston (1706), Franklin apprenticed there with his brother James until disagreements when Franklin was eighteen caused him to leave. Arriving in Philadelphia in 1723, Franklin soon found work as an apprentice printer. Eventually he borrowed some money and set himself up in the printing business. Franklin worked hard, began getting contracts to do government jobs, started thriving in business, and turned to devoting his time to the public good, science, philosophy, and government service.

In 1733, Franklin started publishing Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacs of the era were printed annually, and contained topics such as weather reports, recipes, predictions, and homilies. Franklin published his almanac under the guise of a man named Richard Saunders, a poor man who needed money to take care of his carping wife. What distinguished Franklin's almanac were his witty aphorisms and lively writing. Many of the famous phrases associated with Franklin, such as "A penny saved is a penny earned" come from Poor Richard.