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The Autobiography Of Poor Richard's Almanack

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I was born in Boston on Jan. 17, 1706. My father, Josiah, was a poor soap- and candle maker. I was the youngest son of 17. At the age of 10 I began to help in my father's shop. I was fond of books, and spent much of my spare time reading. When I was 12 I went to work as an apprentice in the print shop of my half-brother James. I studied arithmetic, navigation, grammar and reading every night after work and especially enjoyed the Spectator papers by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Yet I was not happy in my brother's shop. I secretly wrote a series of humorous letters and sent them to the paper, signed them Mrs. Silence Dogood. In these letters I poked fun at Harvard College boys, at silly girls, and at bad poets. The letters amused many people in …show more content…
The next year, when I was 22, I started my own print shop with a partner, Hugh Meredith. The two of us published a weekly newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette, and 2 years later, bought Meredith's share of the business. At the age of 24 I married Deborah Read in 1730 and had three children. Backed by the Junto group, I started the first circulating library in America. Back to PRESSING matters, In 1732 I published Poor Richard's Almanack containing amusing stories, jokes, proverbs, and homely sayings, which I published under the pen name Richard Saunders. It was "Poor Richard" who said: Early to bed, early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”, “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead" and "Fish and visitors smell in three days." At my insistence Philadelphia's streets were paved and kept clean and better lighted. I formed Philadelphia's first volunteer fire company, and used the editorial columns of the Gazette to raise the money for organizing the first hospital in America. By 1748 I had earned enough money to leave my printing business. I bought a 300-acre farm in New Jersey and retired to give my time to science and public

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