Vers de Societe Selected From Recent Authors by Charles H. Jones With Illustrated Title and Vignettes /drawn by John A. Mitchell and Engraved by Henry Marsh clbcat7.

New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1875. First Impression. Hardcover. In quite good condition.. Octavo, [22.25cm/8.75inches], Full fancy gilt-embossed calf, sans dust jacket, pp. 401, indexed. Illustrated with texual vignettes by John Ames Mitchell, (1845-1918). Painter, etcher, illustrator, novelist, editor and publisher. Mitchell began his academic career at the Phillip Exeter Academy and then enrolled at Harvard Medical School. There is, however, no evidence that he finished his courses there. John Ames Mitchell then went to France to study architecture and upon his return to the United States worked in this discipline in Boston for a period of six years. At that point John Ames Mitchell came to the conclusion that architecture was not for him and he again went to Paris to study painting and etching at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Returning once more to the United States, John Ames Mitchell settled in the New York community of Washington Square and began a career as an illustrator and etcher. Fascinated with both etchings and pen and ink drawings he began to entertain the idea of creating a magazine of art, humor and literature which would promote illustrative drawings. Against the advice of all his friends, John Ames Mitchell withdrew his life savings of ten thousand dollars from the bank in 1883. That year he founded Life Magazine and served as both publisher and editor throughout the rest of his life. John Ames Mitchell's first etching was created in France in 1877 and published by Cadart. Besides his career in art, John Ames Mitchell was also a well regarded author of fiction. His most famous novels include Amos Judd, 1895, and The Pines of Lory, 1901. "American Art Review": Inspired by the European etched art of James McNeill Whistler, Charles Meryon, Sir Francis Seymour Haden and others, a large number of American artists became seriously interested in the art of etching by 1875. A primary catalyst to the etching revival in America was the journal, American Art Review (1879-1881). Founded and edited by Sylvester Rosa Koehler it commissioned American artists for original etchings. Contributing etchers included such famous artists as Thomas and Peter Moran, Otto Bacher, Kruseman van Elten, J. M. Falconer, F. S. Church, Robert Swain Gifford, Henry Farrer, Samuel Coleman, J. A. Mitchell, Robert Swain Gifford and James D. Smillie. Each etching published by the American Art Review was printed in a limited edition of 500 impressions on fine China paper which was then pressed onto a larger sheet of white, wove paper. Due mostly to its lavish production costs the journal lasted only slightly over two years. The finely printed etchings it produced, however, served as a cornerstone for the many great American etchings of the early twentieth century. A Young Republican was commissioned by the American Art Review in 1881. ( From the Internet). The book came from the estate of a member of the Ulysses S. Grant Family. Please feel free to inquire as to particulars and/or additional snapshots.