Ambrose Bierce (1842--1914?) was an American writer, journalist and satirist. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His short stories are reckoned among the best of the 19th c. He wrote of the terrible things he had seen in the war in such stories as "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "Chickamauga". He also wrote horror and ghost stories. His "fables" anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that turned into a genre in the 20th century. Bierce was most famous for The Devil's Dictionary, originally a newspaper serialization, that offered an interesting reinterpretation of the English language in which cant and political double-talk was neatly lampooned. |
Ambrose Bierce (1842--1914?) was an American writer, journalist and satirist. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His short stories are reckoned among the best of the 19th c. He wrote of the terrible things he had seen in the war in such stories as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "Chickamauga". He also wrote horror and ghost stories. His "fables" anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that turned into a genre in the 20th century. Bierce was most famous for The Devil's Dictionary, originally a newspaper serialization, that offered an interesting reinterpretation of the English language in which cant and political double-talk was neatly lampooned. |