an 18th-century American almanac publisher. Titan Leeds was a Philadelphia-based publisher of The American Almanack. He was mentioned as a "good friend and fellow student" of Benjamin Franklin in Franklin's rival publication Poor Richard's Almanack. Titan's father, Daniel Leeds, was a devout Quaker who fell out with the local Quaker community when he began publishing the almanac in 1687. Daniel Leeds turned over publication to his son, Titan, in 1716. The American Almanack pre-dated Franklin's almanac. Franklin used the first edition of his almanac to promote the hoax prediction of Leeds's death (Oct. 17, 1733, 3:29 P.M., at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury), and encouraged his readers to buy next year's edition of Poor Richard's Almanac to see if Franklin was right as a publicity stunt and attempt to drive Titan Leeds's American Almanack out of business.
