Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914?

Bierce in 1892

Biographical note

American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. Bierce employed a distinctive style of writing, especially in his stories. This style often embraces an abrupt beginning (see cold open), dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, the theme of war, and impossible events. Bierce was considered a master of “Pure” English by his contemporaries, and virtually everything that came from his pen was notable for its judicious wording and economy of style. He wrote in a variety of literary genres.

His short stories are held among the best of the 19th century, providing a popular following based on his roots. He wrote realistically of the terrible things he had seen in the war in such stories as An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Boarded Window, Killed at Resaca, and Chickamauga. In addition to his ghost and war stories, he also published several volumes of poetry. His Fantastic Fables anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that became a more common genre in the 20th century. One of Bierce’s most famous works is his much-quoted book, The Devil’s Dictionary, originally an occasional newspaper item which was first published in book form in 1906 as The Cynic’s Word Book. It consists of satirical definitions of English words which lampoon cant and political double-talk.

In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective on that country’s ongoing revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, the elderly writer disappeared without a trace.

Works

Short story collections

Cobwebs from an Empty Skull [1874]
Fables of Zambri, the Parsee.
Brief Seasons of Intellectual Dissipation.
Divers Tales. 1. The Grateful Bear. 2. The Setting Sachem. 3. Feodora. 4. The Legend of Immortal Truth. 5. Converting a Prodigal. 6. Four Jacks and a Knave. 7. Dr. Deadwood, I Presume. 8. Nut-Cracking 9. The Magician’s Little Joke 10. Seafaring. 11. Tony Rollo’s Conclusion. 12. No Charge for Attendance. 13. Pernicketty’s Fright. 14. Juniper. 15. Following the Sea. 16. A Tale of Spanish Vengeance. 17. Mrs. Dennison’s Head. 18. A Fowl Witch. 19. The Civil Service in Florida. 20. A Tale of the Bosphorus. 21. John Smith. 22. Sundered Hearts. 23. The Early History of Bath. 24. The Following Dorg. 25. Snaking. 26. Maud’s Papa. 27. Jim Beckwourth’s Pond. 28. Stringing a Bear.
The Dance of Death [as William Herman, with Thomas A. Harcourt and William Rulofson] [1877]
The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter [1892]
Can Such Things Be? [1893]
In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians [1898]
Fantastic Fables [1899]
Present at a Hanging, and other ghost stories
Negligible Tales
The Parenticide Club
The Fourth Estate
The Ocean Wave
“On with the Dance!”, a review
Epigrams

Bodies of the Dead [1893]
The Time the Moon Fought Back [1911]
The Ingenious Patriot
Revenge
The Tail of the Sphinx
Visions of the Night
Ashes of the Beacon ; an historical monograph written in 4930 / Ambrose Bierce

Other Civil War accounts

What I Saw of Shiloh [1881]
The Battle of Nashville [1883]
The Crime at Pickett’s Mill [1888]
Four Days in Dixie [1888]
A Little of Chickamauga [1898]
On Black Soldiering [1898]
A Bivouac of the Dead [1903]
“Way Down in Alabam” [1903]
What Occurred at Franklin [1906]
On a Mountain [1909]

Poetry

Other works

A Cynic Looks at Life / edited by E. Haldeman-Julius