Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1732 and proved an immediate success.
The 1734 edition opens with a thank you to all its readers, and we share the same with you:
Courteous Readers,
Your kind and charitable Assistance last Year, in purchasing so large an Impression of my Almanacks, has made my Circumstances much more easy in the World, and requires my grateful Acknowledgment. My Wife has been enabled to get a Pot of her own, and is no longer oblig’d to borrow one from a Neighbour; nor have we ever since been without something of our own to put in it. She has also got a pair of Shoes, two new Shifts, and a new warm Petticoat; and for my part, I have bought a second-hand Coat, so good, that I am now not asham’d to go to Town or be seen there. These Things have render’d her Temper so much more pacifick than it us’d to be, that I may say, I have slept more, and more quietly within this last Year, than in the three foregoing Years put together. Accept my hearty Thanks therefor, and my sincere Wishes for your Health and Prosperity.
You can read it all at the NHPRC-supported Founders Online at https://founders.archives.gov/docume…/Franklin/01-01-02-0107
With all best wishes for a Happy New Year!