Ambrose Bierce

"Bitter Bierce" - American newspaper columnist, satirist, essayist, short-story writer, and novelist, an enigmatic figure, who disappeared in the Mexican Revolution. His end is still a mystery, but he is presumed to have died in the siege of Ojinega on 11 January 1914. Bierce is best-known for his numerous short stories collected in TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS (1891), which show the influence of Edgar Allan Poe. However, Bierce himself was annoyed by comparisons. As a literary critic he was against realism. After Stephen Crane published his famous novel about the Civil War, The Red Badge of Courage, Bierce wrote: "I had thought there could be only two worse writers than Stephen Crane, namely, two Stephen Cranes."

"John Searing, a man of courage, the formidable enemy, the strong, resolute warrior, was as pale as a ghost. His jaw was fallen; his eyes protruded; he trembled in every fibre; a cold sweat bathed his entire body; he screamed with fear. He was not insane - he was terrified." (from 'One of the Missing')

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio, as the tenth of thirteen children of Marcus and Laura Bierce. Each of the children was given a name beginning with the letter "A". Bierce's father had a large private library, and he spent much time with the books - his name Marcus Aurelius was given after the famous Roman emperor. Bierce grew up on a farm in northern Indiana. Later, in his parody of 'The Old Oaken Bucket', Bierce wrote about his early years: "With what anguish of mind I remember my childhood, / Recalled in the light of a knowledge since gained; / The malarious farm, the wet, fungus grown wildwood, / The chills then contracted that since have remained." Bierce studied year in a high school. At the age of fifteen he became a printer's apprentice on The Northern Indianan, an antislavery paper. After a term at a military school, he worked in a combination store and café.

In 1861 Bierce enlisted in the army, rising eventually to the rank of lieutenant. During the American Civil War he served until 1865 in the Union Army - an experience that was crucial for his life and career as a writer. He fought in several battles including Shiloh and the one that later provided the setting for 'Chickamauga' (1889), one of his best stories. It tells about a little boy who sees wounded crawling toward a creek from one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. He leads the company to his home. The place is burning, and finds his mother dead.

At Kenesaw Mountain Bierce was wounded in the temple. The bullet lodged within his skull behind his left ear. On leave his engagement with Bernie Wright was broken. After the war Bierce served briefly as a Treasury aide in Alabama. He was a topographical officer on General William B. Hazen's staff, and then settled in San Francisco, where he began his journalistic career. Bierce contributed to a number ...