Folsom’s New Pocket Almanac, for the Year of our Lord 1789. Second Edition.
Boston: Printed and sold by John W. Folsom, No. 10, Union-Street. Printed wrappers; string-bound (modern string). Significant staining to the front wrapper costing several letters including to the title. Less severe staining and marginal chipping and roughness throughout the balance of the almanac. Item #3781
Prolific Boston printer, publisher and bookseller John Folsom issued this almanac for just this one year. This is the second edition of the almanac which O’Neal describes as “very scarce.” O’Neal speculates that the Osgood Carleton was the primary author and calculator of the almanac
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The almanac contains a three-and-one-half page essay by Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne titled “Observations on the Return of a Comet.” In it, Maskelyne speculates on the timing of the return of the comet of 1532 and 1661 in 1788. The paper was read by Maskelyne at a June, 1786 meeting of the Royal Society in London. Its republication in an almanac generally filled with information on the more practical and mundane aspects of daily life (mail schedules, road distances, excise taxes, weights and values of various coins, etc.) highlights the interest of the late 18th century public in heavenly phenomena and astronomy.
References: Evans, American Bibliography: 21025. Drake, Almanacs of the United States: 3412. O’Neal, Early American Almanacs, The Phelps Collection: 305. For John Folsom: Franklin V, Benjamin: Boston Printers, Publishers and Booksellers, 1640-1800: pp. 172-177.
[ICN 7789.].
Price: $325.00