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Ambrose 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.
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