Bickerstaff's genuine Boston almanack, or, Federal calendar, for 1791 ..
Subtitle: Containing, besides what is usual, a true narrative of the shocking captivity of Robert White, among the Algerines
Series: Early American imprints -- no. 45832
Publisher: Printed by E. Russell, cheap to travelling traders, &c.
Published: 1790
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 24
Subjects: Portraits; Algerians; Captivities
Notes: The Bickerstaff almanacs published by Russell for the years 1783-1793 are attributed to Benjamin West by Evans and others. The attribution is traditional, but most of these issues can be shown to be the probable work of other calculators. West issued no almanacs under his own name for the years 1788-1803. This issue, like that for 1792, was probably calculated by Amos Pope. The notes on the calendar pages include the abbreviation P.N. (pointers north), e.g. P.N. 2.30, a reference which appears to have been peculiar to Pope's almanacs at this time. Nathaniel Low ceased to give it in 1787; and Daniel George, who also employed it, ceased publishing almanacs under his own name in 1787, and omitted the term from those he calculated anonymously for Isaiah Thomas for 1791-1794.

There is a striking frequency of correspondence between the calendar page notes generally in this issue of Bickerstaff and those in Pope's first signed almanac, An astronomical diary or almanack for 1792 (Boston). Calculators sometimes published their initial work anonymously, to test its acceptance.

Advertised in the Herald of freedom, Boston, Nov. 16, 1790.

Signatures: [A]⁴ B-C⁴.

The cut portraying Robert White was also used in the broadside "An elegiac poem composed by F[reema]n H[earse]y" (probably printed by Russell in 1791) to represent Major Thomas Butler, wounded in a battle with the Indians near Fort Wayne, Nov. 4, 1791.

Advertisement for books sold by E. Russell, p. [24].

Bristol B7321

Shipton & Mooney 45832

Drake, M. Almanacs, 3448