Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard, 1732

Record summary

Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, issued under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, combined calendar calculations, weather and astronomical material, practical advice, jokes, moral sayings, and commercially familiar prognostication. It matters as a comparison case because colonial readers encountered predictive language within entertainment and utility rather than a sharply separate occult category. The almanac’s contents varied by year, and Franklin often used irony. Researchers should identify the edition and distinguish genuine astronomical calculations from satirical or formulaic predictions.