“He that lives upon hope, dies farting.”—Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736
Low- and highbrow humor are two sides of the same magnificent dunghill. Benjamin Franklin is world-famous as the man who helped write the Constitution, founded the U.S. Postal System and created numerous inventions, such as the bifocal lens. It is less well-known that Franklin couldn’t help but occasionally access the bad little schoolboy side of himself. He loved pranks and toilet jokeseven as he was helping to found this country with his political acumen. Foregoing formality and convention for earthy shock effect, Franklin (a known member of England’s notorious Hellfire Club) comes across as a quintessential, fearless American in these hilarious essays. Franklin proposed creating fart pills “to find means of making a Perfume of our wind.” A pellet “no bigger than a pea, shall bestow on it the pleasing Smell of Violets.” Move over, BreathAssure. He never came across as being “filthy” or “obscene.” Instead, he liked to tell it as is. This would be one dangerous book to place in the hands of a visionary fifth grader with a book report due. For that matter, this would be the ideal book to place in the hands of a visionary fifth grader with a book report due! CS

Publisher: Enthea
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated