Isaac Mitchell

Background

Isaac Mitchell was born in the vicinity of Albany, New York.

Career

He first appears as editor of the American Farmer and Dutchess County Advertiser, a newspaper established at Poughkeepsie, January 8, 1799, under his guidance. In November 1801 he transferred his services to a rival publication, the Guardian, in which he purchased an interest, and in June 1802 renamed it the Political Barometer. Four years later, this paper again changed hands, and Mitchell became editor of the Republican Crisis in Albany. In 1812, he returned to Poughkeepsie, where he bought out the Republican Herald and began to issue the Northern Politician. After a few months, however, he contracted typhus fever, of which he died. The distinction due him is derived from the bizarre specimen of early American fiction which he wrote and printed over his signature in weekly installments in the Political Barometer, beginning with the issue of June 5, 1804, and concluding with that of October 30, 1804. In its original version Mitchell's story has the title, "Alonzo and Melissa, a Tale. " On December 2, 1810, a copyright for the publication of the story in book form was obtained in the name of Joseph Nelson "as proprietor" of the Political Barometer. That paper advertised, September 25, 1811, "A New Novel, The Asylum or Alonzo and Melissa, will be ready for delivery to subscribers and others on Monday next, " while on October 2, 1811, the Republican Herald of Poughkeepsie advertised: "New Novel just published by Joseph Nelson . The Asylum or Alonzo and Melissa, An American Tale founded on fact by I. Mitchell. In two volumes. " The first book contains a preface, a lengthy dissertation on novel writing in general, and an episode with little bearing on the main story, which is unfolded in the second book. This edition of Mitchell's novel was never reprinted. In the same year, 1811, there appeared at Plattsburg, New York, an extraordinary example of plagiarism, a one-volume novel entitled Alonzo and Melissa or The Unfeeling Father, of which Daniel Jackson, Jr. , a teacher at Plattsburg Academy, claimed to be author and proprietor. Jackson's story, a continuous narrative without chapter divisions, is identical, except for a few verbal substitutions, with Isaac Mitchell's newspaper story in the Political Barometer of 1804. The chief change Jackson made was in the title. Only one copy of Jackson's 1811 edition is now known to exist, but from its second edition in 1824, the pirated novel became a "best seller. " It enjoyed a period of phenomenal popularity extending to 1876, during which it was reprinted at least eleven times. Why copyright claims were not brought against Daniel Jackson was an unsolved problem until the recent discovery of obituary notices in the Northern Politician of Poughkeepsie which show that Joseph Nelson, proprietor of the Political Barometer and of the copyright of Mitchell's novel, died November 3, 1812, and Isaac Mitchell himself, some three weeks later.

Achievements

• Isaac Mitchell is best known today as the author of the Gothic novel The Asylum, or Alonzo and Melissa.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Alonzo and Melissa; Or, the Unfeeling Father. an American Tale

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Asylum; Or, Alonso and Melissa, an American Tale, Founded on Fact

Connections

Isaac Mitchell was married and had a daughter Aurelia.

daughter:

Aurelia Mitchell

References

• The History of Dutchess County, New York (Classic Reprint)
• Queer Books
• The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie: From the Earliest Settlements, 1683 to 1905 (Classic Reprint)
• Notices of Marriages and Deaths 1778-1825