Ambrose_Bierce

{{nofootnotes|articledate=November 2007}}{{introrewrite|date=November 2007}}
{{Infobox Writer
| name = Ambrose Bierce
| image = Abierce 1866.jpg
| caption = Ambrose Bierce, ca. 1866
| birth_date = {{birth date|1842|6|24|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Meigs County, Ohio]], [[USA]]
| death_date = 1914(?)
| death_place = [[Chihuahua]], [[Mexico]]
| occupation = Journalist, Writer
| genre = Satire
| movement = [[Literary realism|Realism]]
| influences = [[Jonathan Swift]], [[Voltaire]], [[Edgar Allan Poe]]
| influenced = [[H.L. Mencken]], [[William March]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Julio Cortázar]], [[Stephen Crane]], [[Ernest Hemingway]]
| footnotes =
}}

'''Ambrose Gwinett Bierce''' ([[June 24]] [[1842]] – [[1914]](?)) was an [[United States|American]] [[editorial]]ist, [[journalist]], [[short story|short-story writer]] and [[satirist]], today best known for his ''[[The Devil's Dictionary|Devil's Dictionary]]''.

Bierce's lucid, unsentimental style has kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have been consigned to oblivion. {{Fact|date=December 2007}} His dark, [[wiktionary:Sardonic|sardonic]] views and vehemence as a [[critic]] earned him the [[nickname]], "'''Bitter Bierce'''". Such was his [[reputation]] that it was said his judgment on any piece of prose or poetry could make or break a writer's career. Among the younger writers whom he encouraged were the poet [[George Sterling]] and the fiction writer [[W. C. Morrow]].

==Early life and military career==
[[Image:Ambrose Bierce.jpg|thumb|left|Ambrose Bierce. Portrait by J.H.E. Partington.]]

Bierce was born in rural [[Meigs County, Ohio]], and grew up in [[Kosciusko County, Indiana]], attending [[high school]] at the [[county seat]] of [[Warsaw, Indiana|Warsaw]].

He was the tenth of 13 children, whose father, Marcus Aurelius Bierce (1799-1876), gave all of them names beginning with the letter "A". In order of birth, the Bierce siblings were Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia. His mother, née Laura Sherwood, was a descendant of [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]].

At the outset of the [[American Civil War]], Bierce enlisted in the [[Union Army|Union Army's]] 9th Regiment Indiana Infantry. In February [[1862]] he was commissioned [[first lieutenant]], and served on the staff of General [[William Babcock Hazen]] as a [[Cartography|topographical engineer]], making maps of likely battlefields. Bierce fought at the [[Battle of Shiloh]] (April 1862), a terrifying experience that became a source for several later short stories and the [[memoir]] ''What I Saw of Shiloh''.

He continued fighting in the Western theater, at one point receiving newspaper attention for his daring rescue, under fire, of a gravely wounded comrade at the [[Battle of Rich Mountain]], [[West Virginia]]. In June [[1864]] he sustained a serious [[Head injury|head wound]] at the [[Battle of Kennesaw Mountain]], and spent the rest of the summer on [[furlough]], returning to active duty in September. He was discharged from the army in January [[1865]].

His military career resumed, however, when in the summer of 1866 he rejoined General Hazen as part of the latter's expedition to inspect military outposts across the [[Great Plains]]. The expedition proceeded by horseback and wagon from [[Omaha, Nebraska]], arriving toward year's end in [[San Francisco, California]].

==Marriage and children==
Bierce married Mary Ellen ("Mollie") Day on [[Christmas Day]], 1871. They had three children; two sons, Day (1872-1889) and Leigh (1874-1901), and a daughter, Helen (1875-1940).

Both of Bierce's sons predeceased him: Day was shot in a brawl over a woman, and Leigh died of pneumonia related to alcoholism. Bierce separated from his wife in 1888 after discovering compromising letters to her from an admirer, and the couple finally divorced in 1904. Mollie Day Bierce died the following year.

Ambrose Bierce suffered from lifetime asthma as well as complications and problems from his war wounds. For health reasons, he traveled to [[London]] and befriended great literary persons{{Fact|date=December 2007}}.

==Journalism==
In San Francisco, Bierce received the rank of [[brevet (military)|brevet]] [[major]] before resigning from the Army. He remained in San Francisco for many years, eventually becoming famous as a contributor and/or editor for a number of local newspapers and periodicals, including ''The San Francisco News Letter'', ''The Argonaut'', the ''Overland Monthly'', ''The Californian'' and ''[[The Wasp (magazine)|The Wasp]]''.

Bierce lived and wrote in [[England]] from 1872 to 1875, contributing to ''[[Fun (magazine)|Fun]]'' magazine. Returning to the United States, he again took up residence in [[San Francisco]]. From 1879 to 1880, he travelled to [[Rockerville, South Dakota|Rockerville]] and [[Deadwood, South Dakota]] in the [[Dakota Territory]], to try his hand as local manager for a [[New York]] [[mining]] company, but when the company failed he returned to San Francisco and resumed his career in [[journalism]].

In [[1887]], he published a column called ''The Prattle'' and became one of the first regular columnists and editorialists to be employed on [[William Randolph Hearst]]'s newspaper, the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'', eventually becoming one of the most prominent and influential among the writers and journalists of the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]]. He remained associated with [[Hearst Newspapers]] until 1906.

===Railroad Refinancing Bill===
The [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]] and [[Central Pacific Railroad|Central Pacific]] railroad companies had received massive loans from the U.S. government to build the [[First Transcontinental Railroad]]—on gentle terms, but [[Collis P. Huntington]] persuaded a friendly member of [[United States Congress|Congress]] to introduce a bill excusing the companies from repaying the money, amounting to $130 million (nearly 3 billion dollars in 2007 money).

In January [[1896]] Hearst dispatched Bierce to [[Washington, D.C.]] to foil this attempt. The essence of the plot was secrecy; the railroads' advocates hoped to get the bill through Congress without any public notice or hearings. When the angered Huntington confronted Bierce on the steps of the Capitol and told Bierce to name his price, Bierce's answer ended up in newspapers nationwide: "My price is one hundred thirty million dollars. If, when you are ready to pay, I happen to be out of town, you may hand it over to my friend, the Treasurer of the United States". Bierce's coverage and diatribes on the subject aroused such public wrath that the bill was defeated. Bierce returned to California in November.

===McKinley accusation===
Because of his penchant for biting social criticism and satire, Bierce's long newspaper career was often steeped in controversy. On several occasions his columns stirred up a storm of hostile reaction which created difficulties for Hearst. One of the most notable of these incidents occurred following the [[assassination]] of [[President of the United States|President]] [[William McKinley]] when Hearst's opponents turned a poem Bierce had written about the assassination of Governor Goebel in [[1900]] into a ''[[cause célèbre]]''.

Bierce meant his poem, written on the occasion of the assassination of Governor [[William Goebel]] of [[Kentucky]], to express a national mood of dismay and fear, but after McKinley was shot in [[1901]] it seemed to foreshadow the crime:

:"The bullet that pierced Goebel's breast
:Can not be found in all the West;
:Good reason, it is speeding here
:To stretch McKinley on his bier."

Hearst was thereby accused by rival newspapers — and by then [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Elihu Root]] — of having called for McKinley's assassination. Despite a national uproar that ended his ambitions for the presidency (and even his membership in the [[Bohemian Club]]), Hearst neither revealed Bierce as the author of the poem, nor fired him.

==Literary works==
[[Image:Ambrose Bierce 1892-10-07.jpg|thumb|Bierce in 1892]]
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 [[American Civil War|war]] in such stories as "[[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]]", "[[Killed at Resaca]]", and
"[[Chickamauga (short story)|Chickamauga]]".

Bierce was considered a master of [[English language|"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.

In addition to his ghost and war stories, he also published several volumes of [[poetry]] and [[poetry|verse]]. His
''Fantastic Fables'' anticipated the ironic style of [[grotesquerie]] that turned into a 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 offers an interesting reinterpretation of the English language in which [[cant]] and political double-talk are neatly lampooned.

Under the entry "leonine", meaning a single line of [[poetry]] with an internal rhyming scheme, he included an apocryphal couplet written by the apocryphal Bella Peeler Silcox ([[Ella Wheeler Wilcox]]) in which an internal rhyme is achieved in both lines only by mispronouncing the rhyming words:

The [[electric light]] invades the dunnest deep of [[Hades]]. <br>
Cries [[Pluto]], 'twixt his snores: "[[Catiline Orations|O tempora! O mores!]]" <br>

Bierce's twelve-volume ''Collected Works'' were published in 1909, the seventh volume of which consists solely of ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]'', the title Bierce himself preferred to ''The Cynic's Word Book''.

==Disappearance==
In October [[1913]] the septuagenarian Bierce departed [[Washington, D.C.]], for a tour of his old [[American Civil War|Civil War]] battlefields. By December he had proceeded on through [[Louisiana]] and [[Texas]], crossing by way of [[El Paso, Texas|El Paso]] into [[Mexico]], which was in the throes of [[Mexican Revolution|revolution]]. In [[Ciudad Juárez]] he joined [[Pancho Villa]]'s army as an observer, and in that role participated in the battle of [[Mexican Revolution|Tierra Blanca]].

Bierce is known to have accompanied Villa's army as far as [[Chihuahua, Chihuahua]]. After a last letter to a close friend, sent from there [[December 26]] [[1913]], he [[Missing person|vanished without a trace]], becoming one of the most famous disappearances in American literary history. Several writers have subscribed to the speculation that he actually headed north to the Grand Canyon, found a remote spot there and shot himself, though no shred of actual evidence exists to support this view. All investigations into his fate have proved fruitless, and despite an abundance of theories his end remains shrouded in mystery. The date of his death is generally cited as "1914?".

In one of his last letters, Bierce wrote the following to his niece, Lora:

:"Good-bye — if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a [[Gringo]] in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia!"

== Legacy and influence ==
At least three films have been made of Bierce's story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". A silent film version was made in the 1920s. A French version called ''La Rivière du Hibou'', directed by Robert Enrico, was released in 1962. This is a black and white film, faithfully recounting the original narrative using voice-over. Another version, directed by Brian James Egan, was released in [[2005]].

The [[1962]] film was also used for an episode of the [[television series]] ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'': "[[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (The Twilight Zone)|An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]]". A copy of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" appeared in the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] television series ''[[Lost (TV series)|Lost]]'' ("[[Episodes of Lost (season 2)#The Long Con|The Long Con]]", airdate [[February 8]] [[2006]]). Previous to ''The Twilight Zone'', the story had been adapted as an episode of ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''.

Mexican [[novel]]ist [[Carlos Fuentes]] wrote ''Gringo Viejo'' (''The Old Gringo''), a fictionalized account of Bierce's disappearance. Fuentes' novel was later adapted as ''[[Old Gringo]]'' a film starring [[Gregory Peck]] in the title role.<ref> [[Carlos Fuentes]], ''Gringo Viejo'' (Planeta, 2004) ISBN 9686941673 </ref>

[[Lorin Morgan-Richards]], a [[Los Angeles]]-based writer and dark electro artist, wrote and produced an album and modern dance performance in [[2001]], 'An Occurrence Remembered'. This work was based on Bierce's Civil War short stories, 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' and 'Chickamauga'. 'An Occurrence Remembered' premiered in NYC under the choreography of Nicole Cavaliere, and co-production of Valerie Stoneking.

[[Michael Parks]] starred as Bierce in P.J. Pesce's''[[ From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter]]''.

A story by science fiction author Robert Heinlein had Bierce as a character who vanished volutarily, saying, "Humanity's level of existence was too far below my standards to continue living with them."

==Bibliography==
===Books===
* ''Cobwebs from an Empty Skull'' (1874)
* ''The Dance of Death'' (with Thomas A. Harcourt, as William Herman) (1877)
* ''Tales of Soldiers and Civilians'' (also known as ''In the Midst of Life'') (1891)
* ''The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter'' (1892)
* ''Can Such Things Be?'' (1893)
* ''Fantastic Fables'' (1899)
* ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]'' (1911) (first published in book form as ''The Cynic's Word Book'', 1906)
* ''Collected Works'' (1909)
* ''Write It Right'' (1909)
* ''A Horseman in the Sky, A Watcher by the Dead, The Man and the Snake'' (1920)??

===Short stories===
{{col-begin}}
{{col-3}}
* The Haunted Valley (1871)
* [[An Inhabitant of Carcosa]] (1887)
* One of the Missing (1888)
* The Boarded Window (1891)
* Chickamauga (1891)
* The Eyes of the Panther (1891)
* Haita the Shepherd (1891)
* The Man and the Snake (1891)
* The Middle Toe of the Right Foot (1891)
* [[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]] (1891)
* The Suitable Surroundings (1891)
* A Tough Tussle (1891)
* A Watcher by the Dead (1891)
* An Adventure at Brownville (1893)
* A Baby Tramp (1893)
* Bodies of the Dead (1893)
* The Death of Halpin Frayser (1893)
* The Famous Gilson Bequest (1893)
* John Bartine's Watch (1893)
* The Night-Doings at 'Deadman's' (1893)
* A Psychological Shipwreck (1893)
* The Realm of the Unreal (1893)
* The Secret of Macarger's Gulch (1893)
* The Damned Thing (1894)
* A Vine on a House (1905)
* The Moonlit Road (1907)
* The time, The moon fought back (1911)
{{col-3}}
* Beyond the Wall (1909)
* A Diagnosis of Death (1909)
* A Jug of Syrup (1909)
* [[Moxon's Master]] (1909)
* Staley Fleming's Hallucination (1909)
* The Stranger (1909)
* The Way of Ghosts (1909)
* The Affair at Coulter's Notch
* An Affair of Outposts
* The Applicant
* The Baptism of Dobsho
* A Bottomless Grave
* The City of the Gone Away
* The Coup de Grace
* Curried Cow
* The Failure of Hope and Wandel
* George Thurston
* A Holy Terror
* A Horseman in the Sky
* The Hypnotist
* An Imperfect Conflagration
* The Ingenious Patriot
* John Mortonson's Funeral
* Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General
* Killed at Resaca
* A Lady from Redhorse
{{col-3}}
* The Little Story
* The Major's Tale
* The Man Out of the Nose
* The Mocking-Bird
* The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter
* Mr Swiddler's Flip-Flap
* My Favourite Murder
* Mysterious Disappearances
* Oil of Dog
* One Kind of Officer
* One of Twins
* One Officer, One Man
* One Summer Night
* Parker Adderson, Philosopher
* Perry Chumly's Eclipse
* A Providential Intimation
* The Race at Left Bower
* A Resumed Identity
* A Revolt of the Gods
* Some Haunted Houses
* A Son of the Gods
* The Story of a Conscience
* The Tail of the Sphinx
* Visions of the Night
* The Widower Turmore
* An Arrest
{{col-end}}
* Revenge

==See also==
* [[Author]]s
* [[Bolesław Prus#A comparative-literature aspect|Bolesław Prus]] (career similarities).
* [[Critic]]s
* [[Cultural critic]]s
* [[Commentator]]s
* [[Short story|Short story writing]]
* [[satire|Satirists]]
* [[List of horror fiction authors]]
* [[List of people who have disappeared]]
* [[Journalist]]s
* [[Writer]]s
* [[List of atheists]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | authorlink=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=Shasta Publishers | pages=32, 147 | date=1948}}
*[[Carey McWilliams (journalist)|Carey McWilliams]], ''Ambrose Bierce: A Biography'', 1929 (reprinted 1967), Archon Books.
*Richard O'Connor, ''Ambrose Bierce: a Biography'', with illustrations, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1967.

== External links==
{{wikisource author}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commonscat}}
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81284 Poems by Ambrose Bierce at PoetryFoundation.org]
* [http://donswaim.com/ The Ambrose Bierce Site]
* [http://www.biercephile.com The Ambrose Bierce Appreciation Society]
* [http://www.ambrosebierce.org The Ambrose Bierce Project]
*[http://laikapoetryreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/ambrose-bierce-and-power-of-negative.html Laika Poetry Review article]
*[http://www.quotes-famous.com/person/Ambrose-Bierce-quotes.html Ambrose Bierce Quotes]
* [http://ojinaga.com/bierce/ "Ambrose Bierce, 'the Old Gringo': Fact, Fiction and Fantasy"]
* [http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/bierce/ambrose-bierce.html One of Bierce's last letters]
* [http://atheisme.free.fr/Biographies/Bierce_e.htm Biography and quotes of Ambrose Bierce]
* [http://alangullette.com/lit/bierce/ Ambrose Bierce]
*{{gutenberg author|id=Ambrose_Bierce|name=Ambrose Bierce}}
* {{WiredForBooks|bierce|A reading of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and a discussion of the life and writing of Ambrose Bierce - RealAudio}}
* [[s:Author:Ambrose Bierce|WikiSource material]]
* [http://www.horrormasters.com/Themes/Bierce.htm Ambrose Bierce Stories]



{{Persondata
|NAME= Bierce, Ambrose
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= American journalist and writer
|DATE OF BIRTH= [[June 24]] [[1842]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Meigs County, Ohio]]
|DATE OF DEATH= after 1913
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Chihuahua, Mexico]]
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bierce, Ambrose}}
[[Category:American satirists]]
[[Category:American short story writers]]
[[Category:American columnists]]
[[Category:American horror writers]]
[[Category:American journalists]]
[[Category:American poets]]
[[Category:Aphorists]]
[[Category:Unexplained disappearances]]
[[Category:Hearst Corporation people]]
[[Category:American atheists]]
[[Category:People of Indiana in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People of the Mexican Revolution]]
[[Category:San Francisco Examiner people]]
[[Category:Union Army officers]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]
[[Category:People from Ohio]]
[[Category:People from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Disappeared people]]
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]



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