Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)

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Bierce was born to a farming family in Ohio, the tenth of thirteen children. He enlisted in the Union Army when the Civil War erupted. After the war, Bierce made his reputation as a West Coast journalist committed to rooting out hypocrisy and exposing the truth at all costs. Disillusioned with life in the United States, Bierce moved to Mexico to join Pancho Villa’s forces during the country’s Civil War. His death remains a mystery.

Bierce, also known as “Bitter Bierce” or “Almighty God Bierce,” is known for his sarcastic tone and interest in the dark side of human nature. One of his most famous works, The Devil’s Dictionary (1906), is a satiric look at the mundane realities of everyday life. He is also one of the few major Civil War authors who experienced battle firsthand, moments he captures in short stories like “Chickamauga” (1889) and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1890). Drawing on the horrors of the war he experienced during his time in the Union Army, much of Bierce’s work reflects the growing attention to literary realism after the Civil War.