Almanacs, American -- Massachusetts -- Boston

Includes verse. Cover title. "Isaac Bickerstaff" is a common pseudonym in almanacs. This edition lacks illustrations. Signatures: [A]⁴ B² C⁴ D². List of roads and distances to towns, on page [23]. "Memorable events of the War": page [24]. Title within ornamental border; text printed within ruled border.

Includes verse. Cover title. Signatures: [A]⁴ B-C⁴. "Roads to the principal towns on the continent, &c. from Boston : with the names of those who keep houses of entertainment.", pages [21-24]. Bookseller's advertisement, page [24]. Advertised in the Independent chronicle, Boston, Nov. 7, 1782.

A cursory description of the solar system -- An account of some extraordinary rarities of nature -- Roads to the principal Towns on the Continent, &c. from Boston : with the names of those who keep houses of entertainment. Includes verse. Cover title. Signatures: [A-B]⁴ C⁴. Title vignette: the solar system. Printer's advertisement to purchase rags or exchange for paper, page [24]. Title and text printed within ruled border. Advertised in the Independent chronicle, Boston, Dec. 11, 1777.

The title vignette (Reilly 1785), a woodcut of the Man of Signs or Anatomical Man, is identical line for line with that on p. [2] of Thomas Robie's An almanack of the celestial motions, aspects, and eclipses for 1716 (Boston: T. Fleet and T. Crump). The Robie cut itself appears to have been copied from the one which appeared in John Tully's An almanack for 1693 (Boston: Benjamin Harris) and which continued in use in many of the almanacs printed by Bartholomew Green as late as 1723. The Robie version (in which the spelling of "Pisces" is corrected) appears also in the North-American calendar and gentlemen and ladies diary, being an almanack for 1773, by Samuel Stearns (Boston: Edes & Gill and T. & J. Fleet); and with other engravings in that almanac was attributed to Paul Revere in: Brigham, C.S. Paul Revere's engravings (Worcester, Mass., 1954), p. 136. Its final appearance seems to have been in Low's almanac for 1779 (J. Gill and T. & J. Fleet), and it thus had evidently remained in the Fleets' possession and use for at least 63 years.
Includes "A prophecy of Lord Kames concerning the North American Colonies": page [17]. Title within border of double rules; text printed within ruled border. Advertised in the Continental journal, Boston, Oct. 29, 1778.

Includes verse.
Cover title.
Isaac Bickerstaff is the pseudonym of Benjamin West.
Signatures: [A]⁴ B-C⁴.
Woodcut drawings of George Washington and Horatio Gates on title page titled: The glorious Washington and Gates. Print shows side view of faces.
Washington's illustration is first known American print of Washington and this is its 2nd printed appearance (1st use is on a 1776 Salem printing of the Declaration of Independence).
"The anatomy of man's body as governed by the 12 constellations", page [2].
"Roads to the principal Towns on the Continent, &c. from Boston : with the names of those who keep houses of entertainment": pages [22-24].
Printer's advertisement, page [24].
Advertised in the Independent chronicle, Boston, Dec. 11, 1777.
Title and text printed within ruled border.

Cover title.The author, whose preface is signed "Isaac Bickerstaff," was Benjamin West. Cf. Nichols, C.L. "Notes on the almanacs of Massachusetts." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, n.s. v. 22 (1912): 34-35, and the Dictionary of American biography. The columns on the calendar pages, eclipse predictions, and other astronomical material duplicate those in West's The New-England almanack, or Lady's and gentleman's diary, for 1769 (Boston : Mein and Fleeming). "Distances of the principal towns on the Continent from Boston, with the intermediate miles": pages [21]-[24]. "The liberty song. In freedom we're born, etc." With music: page[34]. "Table of the kings and queens..." pages [36]-[39] "A chronological table of the most remarkable events in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, from the year 1602..." pages [38]-[41]. Advertisements for books, stationery and medicine, pages [43]-[44]. Title vignette is a framed portrait of "John Wilkes, Esq" surrounded by figures and books. Parenthesis substituted for square bracket in imprint transcription. Woodcut illustrations. Title and text printed within ruled border. Advertised in the Boston chronicle, Oct. 31-Nov. 7, 1768.