A m e r i c a n a 50 Rare Bilingual Edition Of The Way To Wealth, 1795, “The Most Popular Of All Franklin’s Writings” 65. FRANKLIN, Benjamin. TheWay toWealth, Or Poor Richard Improved. Paris, 1795. 12mo, contemporary three-quarter brown calf. $6200. Rare Paris printing of one of Franklin’s most famous works, the first edition in English of Franklin’s Way to Wealth to be published in France, featuring engraved frontispiece portrait of Franklin by Dupleisse. In the 27th and last edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack, Franklin included a preface consisting of “a long speech to a market-day audience by a character named Father Abraham. The speech blended maxims and aphorisms culled from previous almanacs into a promise that men who worked hard, were prudent and frugal, would become rich… Under the title ‘The Way to Wealth’ the speech would become the most popular of all Franklin’s writings” (Hawke, 162-3). First published separately in 1760, this later English/French edition, “the prettiest yet printed” (Ford 135), was issued in a very limited number, purportedly with only a handful of copies on large paper (Brunet II:1383); the present copy is from the still very scarce regular-paper issue. With Observations sur les sauvages du nord de l’Amerique, together with French translations of La Science du Bonhomme Richard, Lettres du Franklin, Dialogue entre la Goutte et Franklin, and Quelques Mots sur l’Amerique. Bound with half title; with 31-page publisher’s catalogue at rear. Sabin 25596. Early owner ink signature. Text quite clean, some slight edgewear to boards, rounding to corners, and rubbing to joints of sound and attractive contemporary binding. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
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