"Benjamin Franklin, Printer," was Franklin's own favourite description of himself. He was an excellent compositor and pressman; his workmanship, clear impressions, black ink and comparative freedom from errata did much to get him the public printing in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and the printing of the paper money[8] and other public matters in Delaware. The first book with his imprint is _The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and apply'd to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts ..., Philadelphia: Printed by B. F. and H. M. for Thomas Godfrey, and Sold at his Shop, 1729._ The first novel printed in America was Franklin's reprint in 1744 of _Pamela_; and the first American translation from the classics which was printed in America was a version by James Logan (1674-1751) of Cato's _Moral Distichs_ (1735). In 1744 he published another translation of Logan's, Cicero _On Old Age_, which Franklin thought typographically the finest book he had ever printed. In 1733 he had established a press in Charleston, South Carolina, and soon after did the same in Lancaster, Pa., in New Haven, Conn., in New York, in Antigua, in Kingston, Jamaica, and in other places. Personally he had little connexion with the Philadelphia printing office after 1748, when David Hall became his partner and took charge of it. But in 1753 he was eagerly engaged in having several of his improvements incorporated in a new press, and more than twenty years after was actively interested in John Walter's scheme of "logography." In France he had a private press in his house in Passy, on which he printed "bagatelles." Franklin's work as a publisher is for the most part closely connected with his work in issuing the _Gazette_ and _Poor Richard's Almanack_ (a summary of the proverbs from which appeared in the number for 1758, and has often been reprinted--under such titles as _Father Abraham's Speech_, and _The Way to Wealth_).[9]