An Almanack, for the Year of our Lord and Savior, 1778. Being the second after the Leap Year, and second of American Independence [.] (USA.) George (Daniel) Antiquarian

FIRST EDITION, printed on rag paper, large woodcut vignette of solar system on title page and woodcut of eclipse within the text; small spot on upper cover, edges soiled, some ink speckling at the margins of the covers, pp. [24], 12mo, quires stab-sewn together with p. [1] as front cover, thread pulling away but booklet holding, good. Revolutionary-era almanac for Massachusetts, apparently the work of precocious teenager Daniel George, who published his almanacs between 1775 and 1787. In the first of these he described himself as 'a cripple from his infancy' and 'a student in astronomy at Haverhill', with his astronomical observations here forming an article on the solar system, as well as the detailed calendar for the year and tidal reckoning. This is supplemented by all kinds of information: dates of Quaker meetings, 'an account of some extraordinary rarities of nature' (including strange melons, and a sulphurous well in Lancashire), and a guide to roads between 'principal towns' on the American continent (the furthest-flung being Mississippi) with the names of those 'who keep houses of entertainment' en route. An advertisement for the purchase or exchange of rags for writing paper, the sort used here, as well as much proto-Americana: a method for rearing turkeys 'successfully practiced among the Swedes,' and a recipe 'to make wine as good as most that is imported and much cheaper': 'the Foreign Vintage rival'd by the Gardens of America'. (Drake, Almanacs of the United States, 3271; ESTC W37172; Evans 15306)