  James Adams of Londonderry, Ireland, after working more than seven years with Franklin and Hall in Philadelphia, established Delaware's first press at Wilmington in 1761. The Wilmington Almanack, or Ephemeries, for the Year of Our Lord, 1762. By Thomas Fox, Philom. (The Wilmington Almanack, or Ephemeries, for the Year of Our Lord, 1762. By Thomas Fox, Philom.) The Library of Congress possesses one of two extant imprints out of four that Adams is known to have issued at Wilmington in the latter part of that year: The Wilmington Almanack, or Ephemeries [sic], for the Year of Our Lord, 1762 ... By Thomas Fox, Philom. The otherwise unknown author, Thomas Fox (possibly a pseudonym), brings himself to the reader's attention in this statement: Kind Reader, Having for some Years observed those Almanacks published in America; and having formerly, in Europe, learned the Use of Mr. Thomas Street's Tables, with some others, and being willing to crowd in among the rest, I have calculated an Almanack for the Year 1762.... More interesting than the colorless prose and verse selections accompanying the astronomical tables are the printer's advertisements, such as the following notice near the end of the book: Bibles, Testaments, Psalters, Spelling-Books, Primers, Merchants blank Books, Writing-Paper, Ink, all Sorts of Blanks, viz., Bills of Lading, Kerry Bills, Penal Bills, Bills of Sale, Arbitration Bonds, Apprentices Indentures, Bonds with and without Judgment, to be sold at the Printing-Office in Wilmington.—Also, very good Lampblack. * * * Ready money for clean Linen Rags, at the above Office. The Library's copy of the almanac has been detached from a bound volume and bears no evidence of early ownership. It was acquired by exchange from Dodd, Mead & Company in 1908, at a valuation of $15. |
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