Benjamin Franklin's Bitter Race to Publish America's First Magazine

Benjamin Franklin is known for being one of history's most famous polymaths. But despite being a famed statesman and inventor-plus establishing the nation's first volunteer fire company and subscription library-at heart, Franklin considered himself a printer.

(As a young man, he even composed an epitaph comparing the "Body of B. Franklin, Printer" to "the Cover of an Old Book" and promising that he would one day "appear once more/In a new & more perfect Edition.") In the 1740s, it was his ambition as a printer that ended up embroiling him in a rivalry with a local competitor to launch America's first magazine.

Some of the most notable products of Franklin's shop included his newspaper the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack, which Franklin started publishing in 1732. But by 1740, Franklin had set his sights on another goal: producing the very first monthly magazine in the Thirteen Colonies.