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'''Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce''' (born  June 24, 1842, Horse Cave Creek, Meigs County, Ohio, USA &ndash; date of death uncertain, possibly  December 1913 or early 1914, presumably in Mexico) was an American satirist, critic, poet, short story writer, editor, and journalist.[[Image:ambrose-bierce.jpg|thumb|A portrait of Ambrose Bierce, date unknown.]]
His clear style and lack of sentimentality have kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have become obscure.  His dark, sardonic views  and vehemence as a critic, earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce".  Such was Bierce's venerable reputation, that it was feared that his judgment on any contemporary fiction of the day could "make or break" a writer's career. 

==Early life and military career==
Born in a rural area of southeastern [[Ohio]], he resided during his adolescence in the town of [[Elkhart, Indiana|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|Omaha]], [[Nebraska]], arriving in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] near the end of the year.

==Journalism==
In San Francisco, Bierce resigned from the Army and received the rank of [[brevet (military)|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]]&ndash;[[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 of the United States|West Coast]]. In December [[1899]], he moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], 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 [[satire|satirical]] [[poetry|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 (presumably) falsely accused by rival newspapers&mdash;and by then [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Elihu Root]]&mdash;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]]", "[[Killed at Resaca]]", and "[[Chickamauga]]".

Bierce was reckoned a master of "pure" [[English language|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 interesting reinterpretation of the English language in which [[cant]] and political double-talk are neatly lampooned. 

Bierce's twelve-volume ''Collected Works'' were published in [[1909]], the seventh volume of which consists solely of "[[The Devil's Dictionary]]," the title Bierce himself preferred to "The Cynic's Word Book."

==Disappearance==
In October [[1913]], the [[Ageing#Dividing the lifespan|septuagenarian]] Bierce departed Washington on a tour to revisit his old [[American Civil War|Civil War]] battlefields. By December, he had proceeded on through [[Louisiana]] and [[Texas]], crossing by way of [[El Paso, Texas|El Paso]] into [[Mexico]], which was then in the throes of [[Mexican Revolution|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 [[List of people who have disappeared|disappearance]] remains a mystery.

In one of his last letters, Bierce wrote:

:Good-by &mdash; 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 &mdash; 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]].

At least three films have been made of Bierce's story ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''. A silent movie version was made in the [[1920s]]. A French version called ''La Rivière du Hibou'', directed by Robert Enrico, was released in [[1962]] (available as of 2005). This is a black and white film, faithfully recounting the original narrative using voice-over. Another version, directed by Brian James Egan, was released in 2005. The story was also used for an episode of the [[television series]] ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'': ''[[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (The Twilight Zone)|An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]]''.

[[Mexico|Mexican]] [[novelist]] [[Carlos Fuentes]] wrote [[Old Gringo|''Gringo Viejo'']] (''The Old Gringo''), a fictionalized account of Bierce's disappearance. Fuentes's keenly observed novel was later adapted as a [[film|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 (actor)|Michael Parks]].

Bierce appears as a character in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novella ''[[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.

Bierce appears as the main character and narrator in the story ''The Oxoxoco Bottle'' by [[Gerald Kersh]]. The bulk of the story purports to be a manuscript written by Bierce on his last journey in Mexico, and relates a very strange adventure. The manner of his death, however, remains a mystery at the end.

Bierce is depicted as a detective in series of mystery novels by [[Oakley Hall]], including ''Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades'' and ''Ambrose Bierce and the Death of Kings''.

In [[DC Comics]]'s miniseries ''[[Stanley and His Monster]]'', Bierce (or at least a character claiming to be Bierce) appears as a sardonic trenchcoat-clad adventurer into the supernatual, very similar to [[John Constantine]]; although Bierce derides Constantine as a "clown," he admits that he and Constantine are but two of several trenchcoated occult adventurers at large in the world, perhaps an implication by the writer that the archetype of the sarcastic commentator on the occult, exemplified by Constantine, can be traced back to Bierce as narrator of his own horror stories.  When the comic book Bierce learns that the boy Stanley's friend, the nameless Monster, is a demon, he considers vanquishing him but soon realizes that the Monster is a benevolent demon and instead helps Stanley and his friend against other demons.

== Primary books ==

* Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (a.k.a., In the Midst of Life) (1892) 
* Can Such Things Be? (1893)
* Collected Works (1909)

== External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://donswaim.com/ The Ambrose Bierce Site]
* [http://www.biercephile.com The Ambrose Bierce Appreciation Society]
* [http://ojinaga.com/bierce/ "Ambrose Bierce, 'the Old Gringo': Fact, Fiction and Fantasy"]
* [http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/bierce/ambrose-bierce.html One of Bierce's last letters]
* [http://atheisme.free.fr/Biographies/Bierce_e.htm Biography and quotes of Ambrose Bierce]
* [http://bitterbierce.blogspot.com Waking Ambrose: Modern Adjustments of the Devil's Dictionary]
* [http://alangullette.com/lit/bierce/ Ambrose Bierce]
*{{gutenberg author|id=Ambrose_Bierce|name=Ambrose Bierce}}
* [http://librivox.org/the-parenticide-club-by-ambrose-bierce/ Free audiobook of ''The Parenticide Club''] from [http://librivox.org LibriVox]
* [http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?AuthorID=6714&id=19053 The Malignancy of Nature in Bierce's Horror Stories ]
* [http://wiredforbooks.org/bierce/ A reading of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and a discussion of the life and writing of Ambrose Bierce - RealAudio]

Original Wiki source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia]

[[Category:Writers|Bierce, Ambrose]]
[[Category:Historic:Authors|Bierce, Ambrose]]