| Notes: Drake 3443, Evans 22623. Edges worn with loss, stained and foxed throughout, colloquial sewn repair along spine. 1791 Soft Cover. [24 pp.] Self wrappers. "Dr. Nathanael Low (1740-1808), a physician and astronomer born in Massachusetts, published Low’s Almanac, one of the publications upon which citizens of the early United States depended for taverns and stagecoach schedules. Low's Almanac also provided astrological information, verse, lore, homilies, recipes, and jokes. During Low’s years in this house, when Portland Street was part of the Boston-to-Portland turnpike, stagecoaches driving right past his door followed schedules published in his almanacs... Born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Low served in the American Revolution from Berwick in 1780 in the company of Capt. Joseph Pray... As explained by Marion Barber Stowell in Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible, an almanac of Low's day was 'a miscellany: it was clock, calendar, weatherman, reporter, textbook, preacher, guidebook, atlas, navigational aid, doctor, bulletin board, agricultural advisor, and entertainer. The entire colonial family consulted its almanacs freely and regularly; these served the various family members not only as their general handy helper but even as their diary, memorandum book, and early-day Reader's Digest.'" - Old Berwick Historical Society |