Poor Richard's Almanack
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Poor Richard's Almanack
| Author | Benjamin Franklin |
|---|---|
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | The almanac Franklin published every year from 1732 to 1758 under the pen name Richard Saunders, with aphorisms packed between the weather and the tides — on thrift, industry, debt, sleep, drink, self-regard and the compounding consequences of small habits. Franklin used Poor Richard to teach a commercial middle class the virtues its own prosperity would require, and Charlie Munger took his own book’s title from it. |
Poor Richard’s Almanack
Where I heard about it
- Li Lu — on Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, the 137-entry Himalaya Capital bibliography, in Biography and Others — the lives rather than the theories, with Franklin as the founding American instance of the practical, self-improving temperament the whole list keeps circling back to.
About this edition
There is no single book: any modern edition is a selection from twenty-six annual almanacs, and they differ in what they include. Li Lu’s list cites a 1980 Peter Pauper Press anthology of the maxims.
Connections
- Benjamin Franklin — the author behind the persona.
- Thrift — the central virtue, argued in one-line increments over twenty-six years.
- Wisdom — the aphorism as a delivery mechanism for it.
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — the long-form companion, already read.
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Munger’s homage, and the reason this title is familiar to investors at all.
- Li Lu · Himalaya Capital — the curator and the bibliography.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.