first edition
1889
by Mitchell, J.A. ("edited by")
1889. A Fragment from the Journal of Khan-Li, Prince of Dimph-Yoo-Chur and Admiral in the Persian Navy. New York: Frederick A. Stokes & Brother, 1889. Original deep blue cloth decorated in black, white and gilt.
First Edition of this "lost race" novella -- only in this case it is the Americans who are the "lost race." John Ames Mitchell (1845-1918) was by profession an architect, who turned to writing -- and (in 1883) was the co-founder, editor, and publisher of the original Life Magazine. In this book, it is the year 2951 and a Persian explorer, the Prince of "Dimph-Yoo-Chur" (get it?), sails across the Atlantic to "rediscover" America, now a ruined, forgotten land populated with only the last vestiges of native "Mehrikans." This book is the Prince's journal, documenting what he sees first in what had been New York City and then in what had been Washington DC -- a landscape long ago devastated by unfettered greed, excessive immigration, and catastrophic climate change (sound familiar?). The Prince writes about the final century of America as a nation, including the 1930 massacre of the Protestants (by the new Irish immigrants), and the end of the nation's existence in 1990. They find a 1957 coin bearing the portrait of an Irish dictator (Mitchell's disdain for the level of 1880s Irish immigration is readily apparent). The front cover shows, by moonlight, a Persian ship sailing past the Statue of Liberty; this book was published just three years after the statue's dedication by Grover Cleveland. There are numerous illustrations, both as separate plates and within the text -- for example, showing what is left of the Brooklyn Bridge. This is an attractive, just-about-fine copy of this uncommon title. Wright III 3770. Provenance: small endpaper inkstamp of "Bertrand Smith's Acres of Books, Cincinnati Ohio," which was founded there in 1927 before moving to Long Beach in 1934 (closing in 2008). (Inventory #: 15645)
First Edition of this "lost race" novella -- only in this case it is the Americans who are the "lost race." John Ames Mitchell (1845-1918) was by profession an architect, who turned to writing -- and (in 1883) was the co-founder, editor, and publisher of the original Life Magazine. In this book, it is the year 2951 and a Persian explorer, the Prince of "Dimph-Yoo-Chur" (get it?), sails across the Atlantic to "rediscover" America, now a ruined, forgotten land populated with only the last vestiges of native "Mehrikans." This book is the Prince's journal, documenting what he sees first in what had been New York City and then in what had been Washington DC -- a landscape long ago devastated by unfettered greed, excessive immigration, and catastrophic climate change (sound familiar?). The Prince writes about the final century of America as a nation, including the 1930 massacre of the Protestants (by the new Irish immigrants), and the end of the nation's existence in 1990. They find a 1957 coin bearing the portrait of an Irish dictator (Mitchell's disdain for the level of 1880s Irish immigration is readily apparent). The front cover shows, by moonlight, a Persian ship sailing past the Statue of Liberty; this book was published just three years after the statue's dedication by Grover Cleveland. There are numerous illustrations, both as separate plates and within the text -- for example, showing what is left of the Brooklyn Bridge. This is an attractive, just-about-fine copy of this uncommon title. Wright III 3770. Provenance: small endpaper inkstamp of "Bertrand Smith's Acres of Books, Cincinnati Ohio," which was founded there in 1927 before moving to Long Beach in 1934 (closing in 2008). (Inventory #: 15645)
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