More Autumn Leaves - An Aftermath

More Autumn Leaves – An Aftermath (1906) by Uncle William and Aunt Jane Mitchell

There are books written for the public, books written for posterity, and then there are books which appear to have been written because Uncle William and Aunt Jane had something further to say and their nephews and nieces were not going to escape quite that easily. More Autumn Leaves – An Aftermath, dating from 1906, is one of those wonderfully mysterious survivors from the Edwardian age which seems less like a conventional commercial publication and more like a family artefact that somehow wandered out into the wider world.

Exactly how widely it was originally distributed is uncertain, but the presentation strongly suggests something personal or privately produced, perhaps intended by “Uncle William and Aunt Jane Mitchell” for their “dear nephews and nieces”. If so, this was family communication conducted properly: not a hurried postcard, Christmas circular or group message, but an actual leather-bound book. Modern relatives who think a thumbs-up emoji constitutes maintaining family ties may wish to reconsider their standards.

The splendidly autumnal title also suggests that this is a continuation or sequel of sorts—an “aftermath” of earlier leaves, memories or observations—although, like many privately produced books of the period, it arrives with rather less bibliographical assistance than a modern bookseller might ideally desire. No ISBN, naturally, no obvious publishing empire demanding recognition, and apparently little concern that anyone 120 years later might want convenient catalogue data. Edwardian people were inconsiderate like that.

What it does possess is character. Books of this sort can be far more intriguing than mass-produced volumes precisely because they occupy the hazy territory between literature, memoir, family history and keepsake. They were often made in small numbers, sometimes solely for relatives and friends, which means that every surviving copy feels slightly as though it has escaped from somebody else’s drawing room. There is something rather charming about encountering a book addressed to people who presumably knew exactly who Uncle William and Aunt Jane were, while the rest of us are left peering through the historical curtains.

This copy is in Good condition, with an attractive leather binding showing the expected signs of age and wear. It has plainly lived a life, but then anything made in 1906 that still looks completely untouched should probably be treated with suspicion. The wear gives it precisely the sort of gently battered dignity one wants from an old family volume: respectable, venerable and evidently acquainted with shelves, hands and the passage of an unreasonable number of decades.

An unusual and potentially scarce piece of Edwardian family printing, therefore, particularly appealing to collectors of privately published books, genealogical material, family memoirs and miscellaneous historical curiosities which stubbornly refuse to fit into a convenient category. It may not reveal immediately who Uncle William and Aunt Jane Mitchell were, but they clearly expected their nephews and nieces to remember them—and, more than a century later, their book is still doing its bit.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where obscure Edwardian relatives are welcomed even when they arrive without an ISBN, a publisher, or any explanation whatsoever.

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