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The Navigator, containing directions for navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers; with an ample account of these much admired waters, from the head of the former to the mouth of the latter; and a complete description of their towns, villages, harbors, settlements, &c. Pittsburgh: Franklin Head (Zadok Cramer and various partners). —Zadok Cramer was Pittsburgh’s first book publisher, or at least the first to make a long-term business of publishing. This book was his cash cow: it went through edition after edition after edition. Its description of Pittsburgh itself is one of the best we have of the city as it was two hundred years ago.
Smythe’s Balloon Almanac for the Year 1875, or Any Other Year. As an Almanac, a Barometer, or a Political Manual, it is equally good. The contents have been especially imported for the work, and are just out of bond. Vivat Regina. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Nuff Sed. Illustrated by John W. Beatty. Engraved by Beeson & Miller. Published by the Pittsburgh Book and News Company. —“I deny the authorship of this Almanac, or of having anything to do with it, save the making of the calculations. These are mine, are reliable, and were taken on the spot from a balloon two miles up in the air. Anything of a desultory nature, which the publishers have added, has been clipped, at a great expense, or was furnished to them by a fellow who owed them money, and they had to take it out in this way. Anything really good in the work, of course I edited, but all the bad articles were furnished by that other fellow. The religious and philosophic matter is unavoidably crowded out, owing to the great expense of printing. This will be remedied in the next edition, if there is a good crop of remedy from this one.”
The Globe Illustrated Annual for 1886. Breen & Ramsey, Publishers. —A miscellany including numerous portraits of prominent citizens of Pittsburgh and Allegheny.