The History of Printing in America.

Isaiah Thomas was born into poverty in Boston on 19 January 1749. His father abandoned the family when Isaiah was six, leading the young boy to be apprenticed to a rather shady printer named Zechariah Fowle.

The History of Printing in America has become a standard work on which all subsequent studies of the subject have built. By America Thomas meant the United States, for printing was practiced south of the border for about a century before the first press was established in the colonies.

At the age of seventy-six Thomas wrote: “Could I live my life over again and choose my employment it would be that of Printer.”