Donald Grant Mitchell (12 April 1822-15 December 1908), essayist and editor, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, and educated at Yale University, from which he graduated in 1841. Mitchell spent most of his life alternating between farming at his Connecticut homes and travelling abroad: in the mid-1840s he saw England and the continent, in 1848 he was a newspaper correspondent in Paris during the revolution, in 1853 he served as United States Consul to Venice, and in 1854 he lived in Paris. He was married in 1853. Mitchell took great pride in his agricultural skills and most of his dozen books reflect this rural interest. He died at his estate, near New Haven, Connecticut. Today Mitchell is known for The Lorgnette, 2 vols. (New York Henry Kernot, 1850), a satirical view of New York society published under the pseudonym of "John Timon"; Reveries of a Bachelor (New York: Baker & Scribner, 1850) and Dream Life (New York: Charles Scribner, 1851), both published under the pseudonym of "Ik Marvell," sentimental rhapsodies of the simple life that sold in the tens of thousands; and American Lands and Letters, 2 vols. (New York: Scribners, 1897-1899), a still interesting history of American literature.