Tully's Almanac, which featured in this column yesterday, was only one example of a genre that acquired enduring popularity over the centuries. Almanacs provided bits and scraps of all kinds of useful, and some quite useless, information; in addition to a calendar, they included astronomical data and the religious festivals, public holidays, tide tables and astrological horoscopes, together with information on the births and deaths of famous people, notable anniversaries, and indeed anything else thought to be of interest which might be likely to happen in the course of the year in question. Very often, too, they included long-range predictions of the weather. But Tully survived only 16 editions, and ceased publication when its author died in 1701. Much more enduring was Poor Richard's Almanac, published by that ubiquitous 18th-century polymath, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin had been a printer by trade before he became a world figure by virtue of his scientific and political activities, and into Poor Richard, along with all the usual data, he put many of his own epigrams and proverbs. He found the publication an excellent vehicle for promulgating his revolutionary ideals, and it was remarkably successful, having the phenomenal sales, for those days, of 10,000 copies every year.
The first printed almanac had been published in Germany by John Guttenberg in 1457, shortly after the invention of the printing press, and such publications quickly became one of the most popular products of this new device. By the 18th century, the annual almanac was an indispensable work of reference in every educated home. In these parts, the Stationer's Company of London held for many years the monopoly for printing almanacs; "Almanac Day" at Stationer's Hall was on or around November 22 each year, and in an era when books were rare and prized possessions, this date was eagerly awaited and the arrival of each new edition occasioned great excitement.
Almanacs came and went. Some became very famous and a few are still around today. Old Moore's Almanac, for example, was first published by Francis Moore in 1697, and Joseph Whitaker began Whitaker's Almanac in 1868. But to meteorologists, the most noteworthy of these publications was Murphy's Almanac. Murphy was published in England in the early part of the 19th century by one Patrick Murphy, and included weather predictions for various times of the year. In the year 1838, Murphy had the remarkable good luck to predict a cold spell of unprecedented severity for London around January 20th. It duly arrived, and the author became famous overnight. Sales of the Almanac soared, and Patrick Murphy made a great deal of money.