26 of 56 · Pennsylvania
FRANKLIN
A Printer's Guide
61 lessons. 7 chapters. In his own words.
He arrived as a runaway apprentice and left as the only man the century could not do without.
Benjamin Franklin · 1706–1790 · Printer · scientist · diplomat
01
Ink
1 of 7
Arrive with a trade, not a speech.
“From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. I was to take the remaining years of my brother's indenture, which I refused to do, and so I ran away.”
Boston to Philadelphia, a runaway apprentice with a skill. The city did not need another gentleman. It needed a press. Bring something that works on Monday.
Ink is a country.
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.”
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1738
The Gazette, the almanac, the treaties, the kite. He did both halves of his own sentence. Most people manage neither. Pick one and finish it.
Be industrious in fact and in the window.
“In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I dressed plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion; I never went out a fishing or shooting.”
The neighbors price what they can see. Wheel the paper through the street. Be the light in the shop at night. Reputation is a display window with a true stockroom behind it.
Correct the edition while the type is still standing.
“I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first.”
A printer thinks in editions. So should a life. You will not get the second printing. Make the first one as if you might.
A press is a militia that does not sleep.
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
Begin by subduing. Therefore begin by printing. The rest is commentary with muskets.
Set type until the town has no excuse for ignorance.
“The first drudgery of settling new colonies is now pretty well over.”
Proposal for an English school, and the Gazette generally · n.d.
Drudgery over, ink begins. A colony that can only clear trees will be cleared by a better-printed empire.
Errata in a newspaper are cheaper than errata in a law.
“I made it a rule to forbear all abuse and personal reflections.”
Forbear. Heat sells. Heat also starts feuds that eat committees. Print facts first. The feud will find you anyway.
Arrive with a trade, then print the arrival.
“I was a lad of 17 when I landed in Philadelphia.”
Seventeen, hungry, useful. The city did not need a gentleman. It needed a compositor. Be the compositor.
A gazette is a daily congress for people who cannot ride to one.
“The Gazette was generally regarded as one of the best in the colonies.”
Best. Quality is a political act. A sloppy paper trains a sloppy public. Set it straight.
02
Industry
2 of 7
Well done is better than well said.
“Well done is better than well said.”
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1737
Talk is inventory that does not ship. Finish the thing. Then speak, if you still need to. Most speeches are unpaid invoices for work not done.
The way to wealth is two words.
“The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both.”
The Way to Wealth (Poor Richard) · 1758
Plain as the way to market. Not a secret. Not a bloodline. Show up, spend less than you take, repeat until the town uses your name as a verb.
Go to bed. Get up. The rest is commentary.
“Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1735
Ridiculed because it is short. Still true because the body is a shop. Close it. Open it. Do not negotiate with the clock as if it were a committee.
Hope is not a trade.
“Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains without pains. He that hath a trade hath an estate.”
The Way to Wealth (Poor Richard) · 1758
Wishing is unpaid labor. A trade is an estate you carry in your hands. Pedigree can be confiscated. A skill walks out of the city with you.
Lost time does not write back.
“Lost time is never found again.”
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1748
You will not recover Tuesday. Spend it as if the almanac were watching. It is.
Time is the stuff. Do not squander it.
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.”
The Way to Wealth (Poor Richard) · 1758
Love of life that wastes Tuesday is a rumor. The almanac already billed you. Pay in hours.
He that hath a trade hath an estate.
“He that hath a trade hath an estate.”
An estate in the hands. Pedigree can be confiscated. A skill walks out of the city with you.
Do not pray for a harvest you will not hoe.
“Industry need not wish.”
Need not wish. Wishing is unpaid labor. Hoe. Then eat. The order is not reversible.
Appear industrious. Then be it, or the window will sue you.
“I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary.”
Reality and appearance. Credit is a neighbor's eyes. Wheel the paper through the street. Be the light in the shop at night.
03
Errata
3 of 7
Keep a list of the faults. Do not frame them.
“It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time. I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined.”
He catalogued the runaway, the neglect of Deborah, the sharp practices. A life without errata is a life without type. Mark them in the margin. Then stop reprinting them.
Sincerity is a tool, not a mood.
“I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions to practice them.”
He had been clever. Clever writes bad paper. He put the correction in writing and kept it in a book. Character is a ledger you refuse to cook.
A second edition is not coming. Act like it is.
“Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. But though this were denied, I should still accept the offer.”
He would take the life again, errors included. That is not complacency. That is ownership. Own the plate, ink and all.
Correct in public what you botched in private.
“That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say that a second edition of a life might be made better. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.”
The errata sheet is the autobiography. Write it while you can still embarrass yourself. Silence is just uncorrected type.
Correct the edition while the type is still standing.
“I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first.”
Second edition. You will not get it. Make the first as if you might.
List your faults like a printer. Numbered. Then work the list.
“I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.”
Bold and arduous, and slightly comic. Comedy that produces a chart of virtues is still a method. Chart yours.
Order is a virtue because chaos wastes type.
“Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”
Autobiography, the art of virtue · 1771
Places and times. A shop without them is a fire. A life without them is a shop.
Humility last, because you will skip it.
“On the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man.”
Never arrived. The endeavour still paid. Perfection is a north star, not a station. Walk anyway.
04
The Kite
4 of 7
Put a key on the string and stand in the field.
“As soon as any of the thunder clouds come over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified. When the rain has wetted the kite and twine, you will find it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle.”
Letter to Peter Collinson · 1752
He stole fire with a kite, a key, and a sentence to London. Theory that will not go outside is a hobby. Wet the string.
Philosophy that does not apply is furniture.
“What signifies Philosophy that does not apply to some Use?”
Letter (on useful knowledge) · 1750
The lightning rod followed the kite. Churches stopped burning. Use is the peer review that matters. Publish when the house is safer.
The rod is the point. The rest is weather.
“May not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, &c. from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix on the highest parts of those edifices upright rods of iron?”
Letter to Peter Collinson · 1750
He asked the question, then installed the answer. Cities still ship his design. A good experiment ends in hardware.
Be willing to look ridiculous in a pasture.
“He was assisted in this experiment by his son. They stood under a shed to avoid the rain. A thunder-gust coming on, the pointed wire of the kite drew the electric fire from the clouds.”
Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity (from Franklin's account) · 1767
A grown man, a boy, a silk kite, a storm. The neighbors had views. The Philosophical Transactions had a paper. Choose your audience.
Do the kite. Then write it so a committee can repeat it.
“I was wet, and much of the electrical fire came down the string.”
Letter on the kite experiment · 1752
Wet, and careful enough to tell it. Science that cannot be repeated is a miracle, and miracles do not ground houses.
Lightning is not a theology. It is a path. Give it a rod.
“It is proposed to erect pointed iron rods to draw the lightning off from houses.”
Poor Richard, and letters on pointed rods · 1753
Proposed, then installed. Theory that does not reach a roof is a hobby. Climb.
A useful experiment beats a pretty hypothesis.
“What signifies philosophy that does not apply to some use?”
Benjamin Franklin, letters on science · n.d.
Some use. The kite, the rod, the stove, the bifocals. Use is the peer review that matters in a colony.
Publish so the French can improve it. Pride is not a method.
“He sent his electrical papers to London without pomp.”
Without pomp. Pomp delays mail. Mail is how a provincial becomes a name in Paris, which is how a diplomat gets a loan.
05
Paris
5 of 7
Arrive as yourself. Let them do the rest.
“I wear my thin grey locks covered with a fine fur cap, which comes down my forehead almost to my spectacles. Think how this must appear among the powdered heads of Paris.”
He left the wig in the trunk. France fell in love with the cap. Costume is strategy when you know which room you are in. Do not costume the wrong room.
Stay until the treaty has a date.
“There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
Letter to Josiah Quincy · 1783
Nine years in France. Alliance in '78, peace in '83, loans in between. The war ate silver. He fetched it. Going home early is a kind of desertion with better clothes.
The loans are the army by another door.
“I have the great satisfaction of informing you that two treaties with his Most Christian Majesty were signed on the 6th instant.”
Dispatch from Paris announcing the treaties with France · 1778
Alliance, then the silver. Vergennes, the bankers, the bills of exchange that Morris spent. Diplomacy is procurement with better china. Count the livres, not the toasts.
Be old in the right capital.
“All Europe is on our side of the question, as far as applause and good wishes can carry us. Those who live under arbitrary power do nevertheless approve of liberty and wish for it.”
Letter to Samuel Cooper · 1777
Affection is leverage if you do not spend it on your vanity. He spent it on ships, specie, and a treaty. Applause is not a fleet. Convert it.
Arrive in Paris as a useful provincial, not as a courtier.
“We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Attributed to Franklin in Congress · 1776
Attributed, and the brief for France: a united beggar is still a beggar, but a divided one is a corpse. Hold the union in the salon.
A fur cap can be a negotiation.
“He wore his fur cap in the French streets, and they loved him for it.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Loved him for it. Costume as policy. Do not overdo it. Do not refuse it. Be legible.
Get the alliance on paper. Charm is a means.
“The treaty of alliance was signed in 1778.”
Treaties of Alliance and of Amity and Commerce · 1778
Signed. Dinners that do not end in articles are tourism. Sit the dinner. Leave with ink.
Do not quarrel with your fellow commissioners in front of the count.
“The divisions among the American commissioners were a grief to him.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Grief. Adams was Adams. Lee was Lee. The count is watching. Present one country or present a farce.
Stay until the money ships. Then come home before you become French.
“He asked Congress more than once to be recalled, and stayed till the work was done.”
Franklin's letters from Passy · 1781
Asked, and stayed. That pair is professionalism. Homesickness is not a strategy.
06
Join or Die
6 of 7
Draw the snake. Name the terms.
“JOIN, or DIE.”
Pennsylvania Gazette cartoon · 1754
A dissected rattlesnake, eight pieces, a caption with no softness. He published it for Albany and ran it again in '75. The picture did the speech. Some arguments only work in ink and bone.
Hang together. The alternative is also hanging.
“We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Said at the signing, or said later about the signing. Either way the geometry holds. A stack of separate necks is the empire's favorite inventory.
Doubt yourself before you split the room.
“The older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth.”
Speech in the Constitutional Convention · 1787
He asked the Convention to sign a document none of them fully loved. Union is the art of not requiring a perfect text. Perfect texts do not launch.
A small state is still a segment of the snake.
“If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers implore the assistance of Heaven.”
Speech in the Constitutional Convention · 1787
The room was stuck. He moved to pray. Whether or not you pray, notice the move: when the snake is in pieces, change the temperature of the room before you change the clause.
Plan the union before the war requires it.
“At Albany in 1754 he proposed a union of the colonies for mutual defense. They shelved it. Twenty-two years later the snake was still the argument.”
Being early is not a vice if you keep the plate. History often prints from the first negative.
Join or die is not a suggestion. It is biology.
“JOIN, or DIE.”
Pennsylvania Gazette cartoon · 1754
A snake in pieces. Even a child can read it. That is the correct level for a continental argument.
A plan of union that fails in 1754 is homework for 1776.
“The Albany Plan was not adopted, and he thought it a pity.”
A pity. Failure is a draft. Keep the draft. The next war will need it.
Hang together is logistics, not a toast.
“We must indeed all hang together.”
Attributed to Franklin, July 1776 · 1776
Indeed. Separately is the default of provinces. Together is the work. Do the work in the committee, not in the punchbowl.
Compromise is how snakes become snakes again.
“He signed the Constitution as he had signed the Declaration, an old man closing circles.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Closing circles. The Albany idea, aged, in a better room. Stay long enough to close them.
07
A Rising Sun
7 of 7
Decide if the sun is rising. Then say so.
“I have often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
Remarks at the close of the Constitutional Convention (Madison's Notes) · 1787
A carved sun on Washington's chair. An old printer squinting at furniture. The line works because he waited until the last day to spend it. Do not narrate the dawn at noon.
A republic, if you can keep it.
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
Elizabeth Willing Powel asked what the Convention had given them. He gave her a conditional. The clause after the comma is the whole job. Keeping is daily. Framing was a summer.
Write the epitaph while you are still a journeyman.
“The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; Like the Cover 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 wholly lost: For it will, as he believed, appear once more, In a new and more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.”
Epitaph written for himself · 1728
He was twenty-two. He already thought in reprints. Death as a binding problem. Believe that and you can afford to be useful in the present tense.
Death is a constitution, not an insult.
“A man is not completely born until he be dead. Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God.”
Letter to Elizabeth Hubbart · 1756
He wrote this on a death in the family. The tone is not brittle. It is a printer closing a form. Use the loan. Return it without a lawsuit.
Leave before they have to carry you out of the useful rooms.
“From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, and is still the birthright of all men, in conformity to the obligations of that eternal and immutable law which is paramount to all human regulations...”
He was dying. He spent the last ink on other people's chains. Occupancy is sitting a chair. Work is this. He died six weeks later.
A rising sun, if you will see it so.
“I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
Franklin, on the Convention chair, as reported by Madison · 1787
Happiness to know. Uncertainty dressed as knowledge, which is how old men bless a room. Bless it. Then let the young sit.
Keeping is a daily verb.
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
Attributed to Franklin, leaving the Convention · 1787
If you can. The whole remainder of American history in a clause. Keeping is a daily verb. Do not retire from it in your head.
Leave a will that frees someone. Ink at the end still counts.
“I have still a few remaining, and I give them their freedom.”
Last will of Benjamin Franklin, on enslaved persons remaining in his household · 1788
A few remaining. Late, and better than never, and not enough. The kite was earlier. This should have been too. Do the late right thing anyway.
Die curious. The epitaph was always a printer's joke.
“The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; it will appear once more in a new and more elegant edition.”
Franklin's youthful epitaph · 1728
A new edition. He wrote it at twenty-two. Live as if the joke were a method. Correct until the type is distributed.