"Isaac Bickerstaff" is a common pseudonym in almanacs.
Erroneously attributed by Evans to Benjamin West. The actual calculator appears to be Nathan Daboll. The eclipse predictions are identical with those in the New England almanack and gentlemen & ladies diary for 1792 (New London), calculated by Daboll under the pseudonym of Edmund Freebetter. A significant portion of the astronomical and horological notes on calendar pages are similar or identical. The calculations for the moon are identical throughout. The other calculations on these pages vary to a degree reflecting the difference between New London and Providence.
West and Carter, the publisher, severed relations with the 1781 issue. West's almanac was published thereafter at Providence by Bennett Wheeler as the North American calendar, while Carter continued the New England almanack over the Bickerstaff pseudonym with which West is often identified. Cf. Chapin, H.M. "Check list of Rhode Island almanacs, 1643-1850." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, n.s. v. 25 (1915): 24-26.
Advertised in the Providence gazette, Oct. 8, 1791.
Signatures: pi² [A]⁶ B⁴.