Benjamin Franklin
In 1728, at the beginning of what would be the most illustrious printing career in American history, a young Benjamin Franklin penned the following epitaph: "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 believ'd, appear once more, / In a new & more perfect Edition, / Corrected and amended / By the Author. / He was born Jan. 6. 1706. / Died 17" (91).Nearly a half-century later, when he was writing his autobiography, Franklin returned to this metaphor, explaining that he would be willing to repeat his life, "only asking the Advantage Authors have in a second Edition to correct some Faults of the first" (1307).Throughout this work, he often refers to his mistakes as "Errata," borrowing a term from his profession.That a man of such grand and diverse accomplishments should so identify himself with his modest trade might surprise those more familiar with his contributions to science, technology, politics, and literature.The truth, however, is that Benjamin Franklin and colonial printing enjoyed a marriage of sorts, one in which each owed much to the other.
Franklin was not born into wealth.He was not even born into the printing trade.The son of a soap boiler and tallow chandler, he worked in his father's shop and dabbled in other fields in his native Boston before signing indentures with his brother James, a printer, when he was 12.Over the next five years, he set type, printed sheets, and delivered copies of James's newspaper, the New England Courant.He also dabbled in writing, secretly contributing several essays to the Courant under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood.After a conflict with his brother, Franklin broke his indentures in 1723, going first to New York and later to Philadelphia.There he found work in the printing office of Samuel Keimer and attracted the attention of Pennsylvania Governor
William Keith, who promised to help Franklin set up a printing business in Philadelphia and sent him to London to buy supplies and make connections.Keith's promises turned out to be empty, however, and Franklin had to fend for himself in London, eventually working for Palmer's and Watts's printing houses before returning to Philadelphia in 1726.After a stint managing Keimer's operation, Franklin set up his own print shop on Market Street in 1728. Though only 22 years old, Franklin had by this time accumulated a wealth of experience, which he describes in his autobiography."Our Printing-House often wanted Sorts, and there was no Letter Founder in America," Franklin says of his work for Keimer."I had seen Types cast at James's in London, but without much Attention to the Manner: However I now contriv'd a Mould, made use of the Letters we had, as Puncheons, struck the Matrices in Lead, and thus supply'd in a pretty tolerable way all Deficiencies.I also engrav'd several Things on occasion.I made the Ink, I was Warehouse-man & every thing, in short quite a Factotum" (1356).Equally adept at handling people, Franklin also attracted business to his shop through a variety of connections. He also had, as he remarked in his autobiography, "learnt a little to scribble" (1365).
Franklin's mastery of pica, pen, and people helped make him the most successful printer in the colonies.In addition to running a healthy business in job printing, including government documents, he became a leading printer and publisher of books.According to figures cited by James N. Green, between 1728 and 1747 Franklin is known to have printed 432 books, pamphlets, and broadsides, far more than rival Andrew Bradford (257).Among them are The Psalms of David (1729), antislavery pamphlets by John Woolman and other Quakers, Jonathan Edwards's Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1742), and a translation of Cicero's Cato Major (1744), which Green notes "is today reckoned the most beautiful example of the colonial printer's art" (270).By far Franklin's most noteworthy imprint was his own Poor Richard's Almanack, which first appeared in 1732 and became one of the most famous books published in America.Franklin soon added journalism to his printing operation, buying the Pennsylvania Gazette from Keimer in 1729, launching the Philadelphische Zeitung in 1732, and coming out with the General Magazine in 1741.In an age when more than half of newspaper starts failed within two years (Emery and Emery 51), Franklin's Gazette not only survived, but succeeded brilliantly, becoming a major source of income for Franklin's firm.Calling it "the best newspaper in the American colonies, " Edwin Emery and Michael Emery note that the Pennsylvania Gazette "had the largest circulation, most pages, highest advertising revenue, most literate columns, and liveliest comment of any paper in the area" (44).The job printer, publisher, and journalist also operated a stationer's shop and developed an extremely successful wholesale paper business.Of the latter, John Bidwell writes: "Few printers dominated the market as noticeably as Franklin, who could insist on preferential treatment from local mills in return for the rags he supplied and the other services he provided" (181).In 1748 Franklin, still in his 40s, retired from active printing and handed over the management of the business to partner David Hall. The operation continued to flourish."At its peak," John Tebbel writes, "the firm operated three presses, and owned 4,000 pounds of type with eight fonts" (104).Years later, while serving as a diplomat during the Revolutionary War, Franklin returned to his first love, setting up a press in Passy, France, and printing a number of items, including his famous "bagatelles."
The marriage of Benjamin Franklin and printing proved productive for both sides.For Franklin, printing was a vehicle for both his ideas and himself.A number of the
pamphlets that issued from his press were his own essays, some designed to improve his countrymen's comfort, security, and education.The newspaper and almanac he printed, furthermore, often served as extensions of his own mind.Printing was also a vehicle for Franklin himself.A tradesman like his father, Franklin nevertheless entered the world of intellectuals, perhaps partly because his commodities were not soap and candles, but words and ideas.The substantial wealth he accumulated through his printing trade, furthermore, freed him to pursue other endeavors."When I disengag'd myself as above mentioned from private Business," he explains in his autobiography, "I flatter'd myself that, by the sufficient tho' moderate Fortune I had acquir'd, I had secur'd Leisure during the rest of my Life, for Philosophical Studies and Amusements . . . but the Publick now considering me as a Man of Leisure, laid hold of me for their Purposes; every Part of our Civil Government, and almost at the same time, imposing some Duty upon me" (1420).Printing, in short, made Franklin a man of means, enabling his genius to range freely and productively over the realms of science and politics.
In turn, Franklin gave much to printing in the form of his innovations, his support of other printers, and his example.Tebbel credits Franklin with making the first significant improvements in the printing press since its invention (104), helping William Parks set up the south's first paper mill (122), making the first copperplate press in the colonies (170), and contributing to the growth of libraries in America (104)."In a sense," Tebbel explains, "Franklin made reading fashionable and enabled it, through subscription libraries, to spread more rapidly to a larger portion of the population than anyone before his time would have thought possible" (104).Alf Pratte, furthermore, notes that Franklin deserves credit for the idea of an American magazine, for methods of preventing counterfeiting, and for the establishment in 1778 of America's first printers' organization, later named the Franklin Society (109).He also established a number of partnerships, eventually creating a network of some two dozen printers stretching up and down the Atlantic Coast.Indeed, Green explains that the majority of printers operating in the middle colonies in the mid-eighteenth century had come up through Franklin's network (271).As Ralph Frasca has noted, the practice paid off nicely for Franklin, who not only collected a third of his partners' profits, but also secured a means of distributing his almanac and established customers for his printing supplies (133).More significant is the network's enormous influence on colonial printing."The striking uniformity and stability of the print culture of the middle colonies in this period," Green explains, "are probably due to this shared experience and culture.In everything from the type they used to their editorial policies, other tradesmen imitated Franklin" (271).Following Franklin's lead, colonial printers used Caslon type and thus, Tebbel explains, made their publications more attractive (135).Franklin's principles were influential, as well.In "Apology for Printers," Franklin defined printers as indifferent agents who made ideas available to the public.Echoing John Milton's Areopagitica, Franklin writes: "Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence they chearfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute" (172).If printers printed only what they believed, he explains, "the World would afterwards have nothing to read but what happen'd to be the Opinions of Printers" (173).Franklin says, however, that he refuses to publish "any thing that might countenance Vice, or promote Immorality," as well as "such things as might do real Injury to any Person" (173).Early in his career, Green explains, Franklin took on "the even-handed, modest, and consensus-seeking posture that was to characterize not only his whole political career but also his press, and through his influence, the presses of many others over the next generation" (254).
Because of his many accomplishments, one might be tempted to overstate Franklin's influence on colonial printing.Carl Van Doren has argued against Franklin's leadership in publishing, noting that money and friendship largely drove his decisions about what to print (102-103).A glance at Franklin's correspondence, furthermore, shows that his ideas on typography did not always hold sway.In a letter to Noah Webster, Franklin deplores printers' move away from capitalizing nouns and their abandonment of the long s, among other "fancied Improvements" (1177).Alas, Franklin could not erase all the "Errata" of his trade, just as he could not eliminate them from his life.Nonetheless, more than anyone else, Benjamin Franklin shaped his trade and earned the title he gave himself at the beginning of his career: "B. Franklin, Printer."
Mark Canada
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