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Mitchell, J. A. That First Affair and Other Sketches. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896. First edition. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-177 [178-180: blank]. Original green pictorial cloth, front panel stamped in ivory and gold, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Illustrated with twenty inserted plates by C. D, Gibson, A. B. Frost, F. T. Richards, and J. A. Mitchell. First edition, first printing with half title reading "That First Affair" and "University Press" imprint on copyright page. Old dated ink ownership signature on front free endpaper. Small faint damp stain to rear cover, rubbing to cloth at edges, a very good copy overall. #1914. $100. Collection of five short stories, all but one solidly fantastic or supernatural, the first, middle and last bringing various perspectives to bear on the subject of romantic love, with the other two acting as intermezzi. The title story provides a decidedly un-Biblical and revisionary telling of the story of Adam and Eve, artfully blending irony and pathos, and sidestepping pitfalls that would have ruined most writers. "Mrs. Lofter's Ride" vivisects the snobbery of the New York 400, generating surprisingly vital comedy along with corrosive satire. In the middle piece, "The Portraits," an old thwarted love affair between two (now elderly) people is reprised by their grandchildren and finally consummated -- with supernatural help effected through the mysterious mechanism of two portraits on either side of the Atlantic. "The Man Who Vanished" is a mordant confection about the casual hunter who kills for "sport," with a talking bear turning the tables on just such a figure -- the story might have been titled, "The Hunted and the Hunters." The last story, "A Bachelor's Supper," provides a bittersweet glance at the fate of an old bachelor who invites the presence of his seven old lovers to a Christmas Eve midnight supper. Are they actual shades or personified memories? The gentle wistfulness of the tone receives a sharp turn of the screw in the last sentence. This final story makes a nice bookend to the collection's first tale, each painting the joys and agonies of an alternate approach to life -- marriage vs. celibacy -- and together reinforcing the old saw about women and the impracticability for men of living either with them or without them. An excellent collection. Mitchell brings a sure and light touch to material that is not at all lightweight. The results are amusing, provocative and oddly moving or surprisingly uncanny. Founding editor in the 1880s of Life magazine in its first incarnation (focused on humor and first-rate artwork), J. A. Mitchell, while tendentious in his longer fictions, is masterful (and woefully under-rated) in his handling of the short story, the most famous case being "The Last American" with its reversal of the usual lost race perspective. Bleiler (1978), p. 141. Reginald 10186. Wright (III) 3772.
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