Donald Grant Mitchell

Donald Grant Mitchell (April 12, 1822December 15, 1908) was an American essayist and novelist who usually wrote under the pen name Ik Marvel.

Biography

Mitchell, the grandson of politician and jurist Stephen Mix Mitchell, was born in Norwich, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1841, where he was a member of Skull and Bones and studied law, but he soon took up literature. Throughout his life he showed a particular interest in agriculture and landscape gardening, which he followed at first in pursuit of health. He served as U.S. consul at Venice, Italy, from 1853 to 1854, and in 1855 he settled at his estate, called Edgewood, near New Haven, Connecticut.

He was best known as the author, under the pseudonym "Ik Marvel", of the sentimental essays contained in the volumes '' Reveries of a Bachelor, or a Book of the Heart'' (first published in book form in 1850) and ''Dream Life, a Fable of the Seasons'' (1851). ''Reveries of a Bachelor'' examines the dream-like lives Americans were living at the time. It was one of the top best sellers of its time but has received little attention from 19th century literary critics. In the text, Ik Marvel theorizes on boyhood, country life style, marriage, travel, and dreaming. ''Reveries of a Bachelor'' was one of poet Emily Dickinson's favorite books.

''Dream Life, a Fable of the Seasons'', was dedicated to Washington Irving, to whom Mitchell was introduced by Lewis Gaylord Clark. Irving said of the dedication: "Though I have a great disinclination in general to be the object of literary oblations and compliments... I have enjoyed your writings with such peculiar relish and have been so drawn toward the author by the qualities of head and heart evinced in them, that I confess I feel gratified by the dedication". Mitchell produced books of travel and volumes of essays on rural themes including Reveries of a Bachelor (1850), ''My Farm of Edgewood: A Country Book'' (1863), sketchy studies of English monarchs and of English and American literature, and a character novel entitled ''Doctor Johns'' (1866). His other works include ''About Old Story-tellers'' (1878) and ''American Lands and Letters'' (1897–99).

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., called him "one of the pleasantest of our American writers."

Bibliography

*''Fresh Gleanings, or a New Sheaf from the Old Fields of Continental Europe'' (1847)
*''Battle Summer'' (1850; originally planned as a two volume work, only the first was published.)
*''The dignity of learning : a valedictory oration, by Donald G. Mitchell, pronounced before the senior class of Yale College, July 7, 1841; Published by request of the class.'' (1841)
*''Fresh Gleanings, or Or, A New Sheaf From The Old Fields Of Continental Europe'' (1847)
*''The Battle Summer : Being Transcripts from Personal Observations in Paris, During the Year 1848'' (1850)
*''The Lorgnette, or Studies of the Town, by an Opera-Goer'' (1850)
*''Reveries of a Bachelor'' (1850)
*''Dream Life : a fable of the seasons'' (1851)
*''Fudge Doings : being Tony Fudge's record of the same In forty chapters Volumes' (1855)
*''Agricultural address delivered before the Connecticut State Agricultural Society, at Bridgeport'' (1858)
*''Doctor Johns : Being a Narrative of Certain Events in the Life of an Orthodox Minister of Connecticut'' (1861)
*''My Farm of Edgewood : a country book'' (1863)
*''Seven Stories, with Basement and Attic'' (1864)
*''Wet Days at Edgewood, with old farmers, old gardeners, and old pastorals'' (1865)
*''Doctor Johns'' (1866)
*''Rural Studies'' (1867; reprinted as ''Out-of-Town Places'' in 1884)
*''Hearth and Home'' (1868)
*''Pictures of Edgewood; in a series of photographs'' (1869)
*''About Old Story Tellers : of how and when they lived, and what stories they told'' (1877)
*''The Woodbridge Record'' (1883)
*''Daniel Tyler : a memorial volume'' (1883)
*''Bound Together'' (1884)
*''English Lands, Letters, and Kings (in Four Volumes)'' (1889–90)
*''American Lands and Letters : Leather-stocking to Poe's "Raven."'' (1897)
*''American Lands and Letters : the Mayflower to Rip-Van-Winkle'' (1898)
*''Looking back at boyhood'' (1906)
*''The works of Donald G. Mitchell'' (1907)

Biography

*''The Life of Donald G. Mitchell'', by Waldo Hilary Dunn (1922)

Notes

* Spiro, Lisa. ''Smoke, Flame, and Ashes''. A Critical Edition with Facsimile, http://etext.virginia.edu/users/spiro./Contents2.html

External links

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* Donald Grant Mitchell Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marvel, Ik
19th-century American novelists
American male novelists
American essayists
American travel writers
1822 births
1908 deaths
Yale University alumni
American male essayists
People from Norwich, Connecticut
Novelists from Connecticut
19th-century American male writers
19th-century essayists
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters