Edes & Gill's North-American almanack for the year of our Lord 1769
Subtitle: ... Calculated for the meridian of Boston, N.E. latt. 42⁰ 25' north. ... : To which is added, the Charter of the province of Massachusetts-Bay. ...
Series: Early American imprints -- no. 11078
Publisher: Printed and sold by Edes & Gill, in Queen-Street. (Price four shillings per dozen, and six pence single.)
Published: 1768
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 21
Notes: Attributed to Samuel Stearns by Evans. The preface, signed "Incog.," reads: "My first production of the astronomical kind is here presented to you. ... The cause of my not prefixing my real name to this my first essay, is (what I think) a prudent diffidence." The preface to the next issue, for 1770, is evidently by the same author, and concludes: "I have not yet had time to think upon the name by which I should best like to be known in the world, and therefore must remain the public's humble servant, Incog."

However, the first almanac under Stearns' own name also appeared in 1770, entitled The North American's almanack (Boston: The author). Its calculations bear no resemblance to those in the 1770 Edes & Gill's North American almanack, which Evans again attributes to Stearns. Evans' attribution, therefore, is probably based upon the similarity in titles, since no other ground for it is apparent.

Nathaniel Ames in his diary for Feb. 25, 1768, notes: "Sam Sterns of Bolton wants to know how to make almanacks" (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, n.s. v. 45 (1935): 320). Instruction from Ames during 1768 would have made it possible for Stearns to issue an initial production for 1769.

Advertised in the Boston gazette, Nov. 7, 1768.

Parentheses substituted for brackets in imprint transcription.

Signatures: [A]⁴ B⁴ ²A-²B⁴ C⁴.

Frontispiece signed: P. Revere sculp.

Evans 11078

Drake, M. Almanacs, 3176