Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

Ambrose Gwinett Bierce , 1842-1914?, American satirist, journalist, and short-story writer, b. Meigs co., Ohio. After distinguished Civil War service, he turned to journalism. In San Francisco he wrote for the News-Letter, becoming its editor in 1868. He soon established a reputation as a satirical wit, and his waspish squibs and epigrams were much quoted. In London (1872-75), he wrote for the magazine Fun and finished three books, including Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874). After his return to San Francisco, he wrote for the Argonaut, edited the Wasp (1881-86), and was a columnist for Hearst's Sunday Examiner (1887-96); his writings in the Examiner made him the literary arbiter of the West Coast. Later he was Washington correspondent for the American and a contributor to Cosmopolitan.

Bierce's collection of sardonic definitions, The Cynic's Word Book (1906), was retitled The Devil's Dictionary in 1911. Often dark in tone, grisly or macabre in subject matter, and masterful in their spare language, his short stories were collected in such volumes as Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891) and Can Such Things Be? (1893). He was also highly praised for The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (1892), which he adapted from a translation of a German story. Bierce's distinction lies in his distilled satire, in the crisp precision of his language, and in his realistically developed horror stories. Disillusionment and sadness pervaded the latter part of his life. In 1913 he went to Mexico, where all trace of him was lost.

Bibliography: See his Collected Works (12 vol., 1909-12; repr. 1966); Collected Writings (ed. by C. Fadiman, 1946); Phantoms of a Blood-Stained Period: The Complete Civil War Writings (ed. by R. Duncan and D. J. Klooster, 2002); biographies by R. O'Connor (1967) and R. Morris, Jr. (1996); studies by M. E. Grenander (1971), C. N. Davidson (1984), and R. Saunders (1984).

Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett (1842–1914) US satirical writer and journalist. A one-time associate of Mark Twain, Bierce is best-known for The Devil's Dictionary (1906), a collection of epigrammatic definitions.

Bierce, Ambrose [Gwinett] (1842–1914?), born in Ohio, served in the Civil War and became a brilliant and bitter journalist in San Francisco. In England (1872–75) he was on the staff of Fun, contributed to Tom Hood's Comic Annual, edited two issues of The Lantern for the exiled Empress Eugenie, and published under the pseudonym Dod Grile three collections of his vitriolic sketches and witticisms, The Fiend's Delight (1873), Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California (1873), and Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874). Returning to San Francisco, he wrote for Hearst's Examiner, and his wit and satire made him the literary dictator of the Pacific coast, strongly influencing many writers, including his friend George Sterling. Many of his works were potboilers, but in 1891 he issued Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, stories reminiscent of Poe's tales of horror and marked by an ingenious use of the surprise ending, a sardonic humor, and a realistic study of tense emotional states. This was followed by The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (1892), a medieval romance translated with a collaborator from the German of Richard Voss, and Black Beetles in Amber (1892), witty satirical verses. Later poems are collected in Shapes of Clay (1903). Can Such Things Be? (1893) is a second volume of tales, also dealing with episodes of the Civil War and the California frontier, with the supernaturalism, horror, and sardonic humor of the earlier volume. In 1897 Bierce went to Washington as correspondent for the Hearst newspapers, and there he collected The Cynic's Word Book (1906), retitled The Devil's Dictionary (1911), a volume of ironic definitions whose temper is elaborated in Fantastic Fables (1899), an Æsopian collection about contemporary economics and politics. The Shadow on the Dial (1909) is a series of disillusioned essays on contemporary civilization. For several years Bierce was occupied with editing his Collected Works (1909–12), 12 volumes of his better prose and verse, interlarded with journalism. Tired of American civilization, in 1913 he disappeared into war‐torn Mexico, to seek “the good, kind darkness.” Although weird stories have been told concerning his fate, it is probable that in Mexico he found the euthanasia he desired.

A brief book, Write It Right (1909), “a blacklist of literary faults,” was not included in his Works. Posthumously collected books include The Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922), Ambrose Bierce's Civil War (1956), and The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary (1967).