Donald Grant Mitchell

Born in Norwich, Connecticut, on April 12, 1822, Donald Grant Mitchell became an American essayist and novelist who usually published under the pen name Ik Marvel. He graduated from Yale in 1841, studied law for a time, and also spent a brief period abroad, including service as U.S. consul in Venice before settling near New Haven, Connecticut.

Mitchell gained wide popularity with Reveries of a Bachelor in 1850, a book whose sentimental, conversational style connected strongly with readers. He went on to write essays, travel pieces, literary criticism, and books shaped by his love of rural life, and he remained especially associated with graceful, nostalgic writing about home, memory, and the American landscape.

Much of his later life was tied to his farm, Edgewood, where he pursued both writing and an active interest in agriculture and landscape design. He died on December 15, 1908, but his work still offers a clear window into the gentler, reflective side of 19th-century American literature.