Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (born June 24, 1842, Meigs 
County, Ohio, USA – date of death uncertain, possibly 
December 1913 or early 1914, presumably in Mexico) 
was an American satirist, and critic, short story 
writer, editor and journalist. His dark, sardonic 
views gave him the nickname Bitter Bierce. His 
clear style and lack of sentimentality have kept 
him popular when many of his contemporaries have 
become obscure.

Early life and military career
Born in a rural area of southeastern Ohio, he resided 
during his adolescence in the town of Elkhart, 
Indiana. At the outset of the American Civil War, 
Bierce enlisted in the Ninth Regiment, Indiana 
Volunteers, as part of the Union Army. In February 
1862, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant 
and served on the staff of Gen. William Babcock 
Hazen as a topographical engineer, making maps of 
likely battlefields. He fought bravely in several 
of the war's most important battles, at one point 
receiving newspaper attention for his daring 
rescue under fire of a gravely wounded comrade at 
the battle of Girard Hill, West Virginia. In June, 
1864, he received a serious head wound at the 
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and spent the rest of 
the summer on furlough, but returned to active duty 
in September, and was ultimately discharged from 
the army in January 1865.

His military career, however, resumed when, in the 
summer of 1866, he rejoined Gen. Hazen as part of 
the latter's expedition to inspect military outposts 
across the Western plains. The expedition proceeded 
by horseback and wagon from Omaha, Nebraska, 
arriving in San Francisco near the end of the year.


Journalism
In San Francisco, Bierce resigned from the Army and 
received the rank of brevet Major. He remained there 
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, and The Wasp. Bierce 
lived and wrote in England from 1872 to 1875. 
Returning to the United States, he again took up 
residence in San Francisco. In 1879–1880, he went 
to 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 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. In December 1899, 
he moved to Washington, DC, but continued his 
association with the Hearst newspapers until 1906.


The 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 William McKinley when 
Hearst's political opponents turned a satirical poem 
Bierce had written in 1900 into a cause célèbre. 
Bierce meant his poem, written on the occasion of 
the assassination of Governor-elect 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 falsely accused by rival newspapers — 
and by then 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
His short stories are considered among the best of 
the 19th century. He wrote realistically of the 
terrible things he had seen in the war in such stories 
as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "Chickamauga".

Bierce was reckoned a master of "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 skillfully in 
a variety of literary genres, and in addition to his 
celebrated ghost and war stories he published several 
volumes of poetry and 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 a newspaper 
serialization which was first published in book form 
in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book. It offers an i
nteresting reinterpretation of the English language 
in which cant and political double-talk are neatly 
lampooned.

Bierce's twelve-volume Collected Works were published 
in 1912.


Disappearance
In October 1913, the septuagenarian Bierce departed 
Washington on a tour to revisit his old Civil War 
battlefields. By December, he had proceeded on through 
Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into 
Mexico, which was then in the throes of revolution. 
In Ciudad Juárez, he joined the army of Pancho Villa 
as an observer, in which role he participated in the 
battle of Tierra Blanca. He is known to have accompanied 
Villa's army as far as the city of Chihuahua, 
Chihuahua. After a last letter to a close friend, sent 
from that city on December 26, 1913, he vanished without 
a trace, becoming one of the most famous disappearances 
in American literary history. Subsequent investigations 
to ascertain his fate were fruitless and, despite many 
decades of speculation, his disappearance remains a 
mystery.

In one of his last letters, Bierce wrote:

Good-by — 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! 

Bierce in popular culture
Robert W. Chambers borrowed several terms and fictional 
locations (including, for instance, Carcosa and Hastur) 
from Bierce, for use in his book of horror short stories, 
The King in Yellow. The horror writer H.P. Lovecraft 
later incorporated these into his own work, as did 
other authors who later extended Lovecraft's characters 
and themes, collectively creating the Cthulhu Mythos.

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes wrote Gringo Viejo (The 
Old Gringo), a fictionalized account of Bierce's 
disappearance. Fuentes's keenly observed novel was later 
adapted as a motion picture, with Gregory Peck in the 
title role.

Bierce appears as a character in the 2000 movie From 
Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (set in 1913, 
a prequel to the original From Dusk Till Dawn). While 
traveling to join up with Villa, Bierce is first attacked 
by bandits, and then trapped in a bar filled with 
vampires bent on killing all the humans inside. This 
clearly fictional adventure also portrayed Bierce as an 
alcoholic. In that movie Ambrose Bierce was played by 
Michael Parks.

Bierce appears as a character in Robert Heinlein's 
story "Lost Legacy", (published in the short story 
collection Assignment in Eternity). In the story, Bierce 
is one of a league of humans who have learned to use 
the unused portions of their brains and have advanced 
mental powers.

Quotations
Here are some entries from his most widely known work, 
The Devil's Dictionary :

Accord, n. Harmony. 
Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the 
sentiments of an assassin. 
Alone, adj. In bad company. 
Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen. 
Bride, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness 
behind her. 
Custard, n. A vile concoction produced by a malevolent 
conspiracy of the hen, the cow, and the cook. 
Defenceless, adj. Unable to attack. 
Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in 
himself than in me. 
Erudition, n. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty 
skull. 
Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by 
one who speaks without knowledge, of things without 
parallel. 
Guilt, n. The condition of one who is known to have 
committed an indiscretion, as distinguished from the 
state of him who has covered his tracks. 
Hers, pron. His. 
Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic 
qualities of humanity. 
Joy, n. An emotion variously excited, but in its highest 
degree arising from the contemplation of grief in another. 
Kilt, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in 
America and Americans in Scotland. 
Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or 
by removal of the patient from the influences under 
which he incurred the disorder. 
Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community 
consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, 
making in all, two. 
Monday, n. In Christian countries, the day after the 
baseball game. 
Neighbor, n. One whom we are commanded to love as 
ourselves, and who does all he knows how to make 
us disobedient. 
Non-combatant, n. A dead Quaker. 
Once, adj. Enough. 
Opportunity, n. A favorable occasion for grasping 
a disappointment. 
Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be 
annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly 
unworthy. 
Quack, n. A murderer without a license. 
Resign, v. A good thing to do when you are going 
to be kicked out. 
Success, n. The one unpardonable sin against one's 
fellows. 
Twice, adv. Once too often. 
Un-American,