“THE BODY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER, LIKE THE COVERING OF AN OLD BOOK… LIES HERE, FOOD FOR WORMS…”: RARE FIRST PRINTING OF FRANKLIN’S HUMOROUS EPITAPH

(FRANKLIN, Benjamin) AMES, Nathaniel. An Astronomical Diary; or, Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord Christ 1771. [Boston: Printed and Sold by the Booksellers of Boston, 1770]. 12mo, original printed wrappers, early stitching, uncut; pp. 24.

Rare 1770 Ames Almanack (for the year 1771), containing the first known printing of “the most famous of American epitaphs” (Mark Van Doren), entirely uncut, scarce in original wrappers.

Ames’ Almanack contains the first known appearance in print of Franklin’s humorous epitaph: “The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, Like the covering of an Old Book, Its Contents Torn out, and Stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ’d) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.” As a young printer, Franklin composed the epitaph in 1728 largely “for himself, or at least for his amusement, a cheeky epitaph that reflected his wry perspective.” Shortly before his death in 1790, Franklin “prescribed something simpler… His tombstone should be, he wrote, with… this inscription: Benjamin and Deborah Franklin” (Isaacson, 470). He occasionally gave handwritten copies to friends and relatives, the earliest dating around 1760. The Ames almanacs “had no real rivals in New England for half a century and in the opinion of one eminent authority were ‘in most respects better than Franklin’s’ more famous Poor Richard almanacs…. The Ames text, apart from the corrupt form ‘Covering’ for ‘Cover’ in the third line, probably derives from… the holograph version owned by Jane (Franklin) Mecom,” Franklin’s sister who lived in Boston. “The Ameses, father and son, were admirers of Franklin (as a number of allusions in their almanacs show) and they had probably met the great man when he stopped in Dedham on his inspection tour of New England post offices in the fall of 1763. Nothing could have been more natural than for Mrs. Mecom to have supplied, at the almanac-maker’s request a copy of her brother’s Epitaph” (New Colphon 50:23). The father, Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, first published his Astronomical Diary nearly eight years before Franklin’s Poor Richard, and his son assumed its publication in 1764, ending the Almanack only at the outbreak of the Revolution when he “served as surgeon with the outbreak of fighting in April 1775, marching to Concord with Dedham’s 242 militiamen” (ANB). 1770 edition: variant title page without publisher’s imprint. Containing sections on eclipses, calendar pages, table of interest, “Distances of the principal Towns… from Boston,” a cure for a rattlesnake bite and a “Recipe to cure the Whooping-Cough.” Evans 11547-11548. Sabin 1309. Small bit of early inked marginalia to several leaves.

Text generally fresh with occasional soiling, May/June leaf with two inch closed tear expertly repaired, some edge-wear to leaves not affecting text. An extremely good copy.