[MOON HOAX]. The Sun. New York: Benjamin H. Day, 25 August 1835. No. 615. 4pp., folio (420 x 280 mm), some browning, lower left corner with 1-inch loss. THE FIRST PRINTING OF THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF THE GREAT MOON HOAX. The front page announces, “GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES lately made by Sir John Herschel ... at the Cape of Good Hope,” which continues on to p. 2. The article claims that it is reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, and that it is an accounting by famed explorer Sir John Herschel of an entire world of plants, animals, and beings, lately discovered on the surface of the moon thanks to his remarkably powerful telescope. The feature was wildly popular: it ran in 6 consecutive issues of The Sun and increased their circulation dramatically. The series closed with the news that the lens of the powerful telescope had accidentally burned down Hershel’s laboratory and notes, leaving only the present essay as evidence of the scientific marvels observed. Authorship of the hoax is generally attributed to Richard Adams Locke, a reporter at the Sun who had edited Poe’s “Lunar Discoveries...” at the Southern Literary Messenger just months earlier (hence Poe’s accusation of plagiarism).