ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM O. GELLER, OF LONDON. FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY BARON JOLLY, OF BRUXELLES
FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, 1778—Seated Figures Are Louis XVI And Marie Antoinette
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
As Printer
SIX
“Benjamin Franklin, printer,” was Franklin’s favorite way of describing himself. He was, indeed, a printer all his life. When only twelve, he became apprentice to his half-brother, James, but quarreled with him and ran away, finally reaching Philadelphia. Here he obtained employment and the patronage of Sir William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania and Delaware, who gave him the public printing to do. Persuaded to try his fortune in London with Keith’s patronage, Franklin set sail with high hopes; but, on arriving, he found that Keith had played him false, and that no letter of credit, as promised, awaited him. After a year and a half of struggle and adventure, he was back in Philadelphia working at his trade. Franklin was now twenty-one. In a short time he started in business with a partner, and the firm of Franklin & Meredith limped along slowly but surely until Franklin became possessed of the leading newspaper in Philadelphia, to which he gave a new title, the Pennsylvania Gazette.
This he improved in every way, making it the best and most widely read newspaper in the Colonies. By this time (1729) Franklin had a very well-trained pen, and his journalistic writings and published pamphlets had attracted much attention. He now dropped his partner, and, to help out his small income, he opened a shop, where he sold stationery, goose-feathers, soap, liquors, and groceries. About this time he printed the laws of Delaware.
The Pennsylvania Gazette grew better and better all the time; for it contained anecdotes, extracts from English newspapers and articles which Franklin had written for and read to his club, the Junto.
In Colonial days every printer issued an almanac. Franklin followed the rule; but the annual he published differed in no way from any of the others until 1733, when Franklin, having nobody to prepare his almanac, had to write it himself. He published it as the work of a Richard Saunders, called in Franklin’s genial way, “Poor Richard.” In a note to “Courteous Reader,” Poor Richard introduced himself, little anticipating the success he was to have.