Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24 June 1842 in a log cabin in Meigs County, Ohio. He was the tenth of thirteen children, all of whom were given names beginning with the letter “A.” His parents, both from Puritan settler families, had moved to Ohio from Cornwall, Connecticut. The family moved to northern Indiana and the young Bierce spent time as a printer’s devil before enrolling at the Kentucky Military Institute and training to become a topographical engineer. He left the institute and returned to Indiana, but with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army. He suffered a head wound from a bullet at Kennesaw Mountain, with the subsequent dizziness and blackouts leading to his leaving the army in 1865. The next significant phase of his career was becoming a newspaper writer in San Francisco, eventually writing for the San Francisco Examiner, where his work as a critic and his satirical definitions (which would later be published as The Devil’s Dictionary) made him well known. During his lifetime he gained a reputation for his acerbic reviews and cynical nature, and was known as “Bitter” Bierce. He married Mary Ellen “Mollie” Day in 1871, but later divorced in 1904 after a long separation. The couple had two sons, Day and Leigh (who both died young), and a daughter, Helen. As well as journalism, Bierce wrote fiction, which he is best remembered for today, although he has historically been overshadowed by other authors such as Mark Twain. An accomplished author in the short story form, he is celebrated for his fiction about the Civil War as well as his writing in the gothic horror mode and several satirical “tall tales.” In 1913 Bierce embarked from his home in Washington, DC, on a tour of Civil War battlefields, and then disappeared after crossing into Mexico. Despite his stated intention to travel to South America, and his own suggestion that he may be shot in the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution, the mystery of his fate has never been solved.