John Ames Mitchell was an American publisher, architect, artist and novelist. He was co-founder, editor, and publisher of the original Life magazine, in which he was a contributing artist, and the author of several novels.

Life is an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, a monthly from 1978 until 2000, and an online supplement since 2008. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography, and was one of the nation's most popular magazines, regularly reaching one-quarter of the population.