Ambrose Bierce - (1842-1914)
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I. Biography
"LIFE, n. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. We live in daily apprehension of its loss; yet when lost it is not missed. The question, "Is life worth living?" has been much discussed; particularly by those who think it is not, many of whom have written at great length in support of their view and by careful observance of the laws of health enjoyed for long terms of years the honors of successful controversy" (Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary").
The Early Years Ambrose Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio on June 24, 1842, the tenth child of Marcus and Laura Bierce. Brought up under strict Calvinism, Bierce was seriously affected
by the hellfire of this religion. It caused him to have no real affection for any member of his family, except Albert, who would also serve in the Civil War for the Union army and migrate to California (Saunders 11). Bierce left home at age fifteen to work for the Northern Indianian in Warsaw. He was wrongly accused of stealing money there and was forced to leave. After this incident, his
family enrolled him in the Kentucky Military Institute. Bierce's father owned the largest private library in the town where they lived. Bierce spent
lots of time there thus enhancing his education. His experiences in Warsaw, Indiana, however, contributed to his cynicism because he felt trapped and annoyed by the ignorance of the community that surrounded him (Saunders 11).
Influences Bierce was a natural loner, and it was often difficult to get along with him although he was quite imaginative. Acquiring a rebellious nature from being raised by stern parents, his
childhood was difficult, and the sensitive child was often punished. Feeling alienated from his town because could not accept the ignorant townspeople Bierce indulged himself with
a deep connection with nature to relieve himself of these stresses, (Saunders 12). Later in life he said, "I pity the dunces who don't understand the speech of the earth, heaven and
ocean" (Bierce quoted in Saunders 12). Only looking at this small section of his writing, it is easy to see that Bierce did feel alienated from society even in adulthood and still did not
respect the intelligence of many of those around him. His major influence, however, as biographer Richard O'Conner and most biographers claim,
was the Civil War. In the war, Bierce was constantly surrounded by death and dying. This transferred into his fiction about war with all of its blood and gore (Gullette).
Bierce's first literary mentor was James Watkins. In 1868 on Watkins's urging, Bierce read and studied Voltaire, Swift, and Thackeray. This was a major influence on his style of
satire, which, as Watkins observed, combined the methods of the great satirists to achieve "real American thought" (Martin 116). Bierce's regional influences were from his reactions to the types of people that surrounded
him. As noted above, the small town atmosphere where he grew up made him a loner. In San Francisco, the frontier was still alive when Bierce first moved there. The wild nature of
the city at that time appealed immensely to his personality. Bierce himself described his longing for the old San Francisco, a city ripe for satire:
Where are the courageous men of the Vigilante Committee of the old days? Where are those who broke the head of the mob with pick-handles in the time of Denis
Kearney? I mean, where are those like them? It is clear that the business men and the professional men of today are not better than the labor unions and not half so brave (Saunders 94).
The War Years Ambrose Bierce was the second man from Meigs County, Ohio to enlist in the Union army after President Lincoln's call for volunteers. He was registered as a private in Company C
of the Ninth Indiana Infantry. In the war, Bierce fought at the battles at Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Franklin, and Chickamauga. He was often cited for his bravery in battle (Saunders 10).
After Bierce was wounded in the head at Kenesaw Mountain, he served General W. B. Hazen as a topographical engineer. On an expedition through the Far West, Bierce
inspected and mapped the area. It was the end of the war, and an officer's commission was supposed to be waiting for him upon arriving in San Francisco. However, after the war,
there were so many officers that ranks were actually reduced (Saunders 10-11). The San Francisco Years Once in San Francisco, Bierce had to choose whether to stay with the military or pursue a
different career. He had acquired some experience working for a printer in Indiana, which gave him the option of being a journalist. Feeling that the government was ungrateful for
its officers' service, legend has it that Bierce's final decision was made by a coin toss; needless to say, journalism won. For the next year, Bierce educated himself in the classics
and other literature at nights while working during the day. His completely focused energy allowed him to develop his writing skills more fully (Saunders 11).
Bierce's first writings were verse, short articles, and essays published in newspapers such as Golden Era, Californian, and Alta California as early as 1868. These writings
responded to a growing demand for social and political satire in periodicals. Several of Bierce's colleagues in this field were Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, Ina Coolbrith, and Prentice Mulford (Saunders 13). In 1868, Bierce assumed editorship of the "Town Crier," a satirical page in periodical called Newsletter (Saunders 14). Although some contribute the sarcasm of the page to the paper
and editor before him, once Bierce became the editor, that sarcasm reached a whole new level. His satire was completely uninhibited. He was incredibly sexist, which can be seen
in this excerpt from "The Devil's Dictionary:"
LAP, n. One of the most important organs of the female system -- an admirable provision of nature for the repose of infancy, but chiefly useful in rural festivities
to support plates of cold chicken and heads of adult males. The male of our species has a rudimentary lap, imperfectly developed and in no way contributing to the animal's substantial welfare.
His hatred for politicians and his loath for organized religion made his writing unpredictable. Although he was brutal on sensitive issues and made many enemies, he
became the writer everyone loved to hate and loved to read. On several occasions, Bierce offended churches. One particular time, he was called a "laughing devil" (Saunders 15-17).
Bierce published this response in his column:
O, Lord, who for the purposes of this supplication we will assume to have created the heavens and the earth before man created Thee; and who, let us say, art from
everlasting to everlasting; we beseech Thee to turn Thy attention this way and behold a set of the most abandoned scalawags Thou has ever had the pleasure of
setting eyes on. … But in consideration of the fact that Thou sentest Thy only-begotten Son among us, and afforded us the felicity of murdering him, we
would respectfully suggest the propriety of taking into heaven such of us as pay our church dues, and giving us an eternity of exalted laziness and absolutely
inconceivable fun. We ask this in the name of Thy Son whom we strung up as above stated. Amen. (Saunders 16).
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Mollie Day, 1871 |
The Years in England
In England in 1872, an American craze struck; it was incited by the popularity of Mark Twain (Saunders 20). Bierce moved to England at this time with Mollie and later recalled
his years there as the best and most prosperous of his life. He wrote humorous sketches for various newspapers such as Tom Hood's Fun and James Mortimer's Figaro under the
pen name Dod Grile. At one time, Prime Minister William E. Gladstone praised him for his genius and dry sense of humor. Bierce had three collections of his newspaper writings
published (see list in Professional Career for years of publication): The Fiend's Delight, Nuggets and Dust, and Cobwebs from an Empty Skull. Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller, and
Ambrose Bierce were honored by the White Friars' Club of Fleet Street at a dinner event (21-22). In December of 1872, Day, Bierce's first son was born (Saunders 21). Only two years later,
Mollie gave birth to their second son, Leigh. While Bierce was supporting his newly enlarged family on freelance writing for three years, Mollie felt lonely and neglected
because he was rarely home. She left with the children to go back to San Francisco on the premise that she was visiting her mother. However, she was with child at the time and told
her husband after she arrived in the States that she wanted to have their third child at home. In 1875, Bierce returned to San Francisco and to his family (21-23). Back in San Francisco: The Argonaut When Bierce arrived, the Depression of 1873 was still raging. San Francisco was in particularly bad shape because a railroad monopoly completely enclosed California causing
even greater economic burdens (Saunders 23). At this time, he wrote some articles including the first forty-eight entries that evolved into one of his famous works, The Devil's Dictionary
. He ended up working at the Assay Office of the Mint with his brother, Albert because jobs were scarce while Mrs. Day, Mollie's mother, caused growing domestic problems.
During these years, Kearneyism ran rampant through San Francisco. Denis Kearney was the leader of the Workingmen's Party. This party was formed with two purposes: to
undermine wealthy capitalists and to drive out the Chinese (Hicks). The wealthy elite of San Francisco were very opposed to the Kearneyites because of their anti-capitalist
sentiment and violent tactics. Frank Pixley, a wealthy Republican, founded a newspaper, The Argonaut, at this time with aspirations to gain a good name by condemning the
Kearneyites and perhaps become governor (Saunders 26). He hired Bierce as a columnist in order to gain circulation. This pleased conservatives that hated Kearney (27).
Problems arose, however, when Bierce refused to write racist comments in his columns. His column was known as "The Prattler" and was very liberal about race and nationality.
Bierce attacked the injustices against various groups including Chinese, Jews, and African Americans. Bierce believed that all mankind is evil and stupid regardless of race or religion.
However, Pixley constantly requested anti-Irish and anti-Catholic attacks. This caused great friction between the two (Saunders 27-29).
After Kearney led a two-day siege on Chinatown, Bierce devoted himself to destroying the Workingmen's Party with the pen. Within a year, public support had failed due to rising
employment, struggling factions within the party, and declining support of many newspapers. After Kearney was no longer a threat, nothing was left to unite Pixley and
Bierce because Bierce would not sell out, but Pixley always would. Bierce decided to leave San Francisco to look for gold in the Dakota Black Hills (Saunders 30-31). His departure
was friendly, as an acquaintance recalled, and Bierce's expedition into the Black Hills was undertaken because he had a natural interest in mining, not because he was fleeing San Francisco (McWilliams 142).
Another exciting episode in Bierce's professional life was a literary hoax that he staged with T. A. Harcourt and William Rulofson (Saunders 29). The book was entitled The Dance of Death
published under the name William Herman. It claimed that the waltz was "an open and shameless gratification of sexual desire and a cooler of burning lust." The book was a
huge seller because of its shock value. The religious community did not know whether to condemn it or condone it. Bierce added to the sales by attacking it in his column calling it
"a criminal assault upon the public modesty, an indecent exposure of the author's mind" (29-30). The book was endorsed by a Methodist Church Conference, which gave the
authors a good reason to celebrate and laugh at the stupidity of "that immortal ass, the average man" (Bierce qtd. in Saunders 30). Searching for Gold
Bierce's expedition into the Black Hills began in the spring of 1880. With the army, Bierce had sketched the area, and in 1877, he had those sketches published as a map by A. L.
Bancroft & Company. However, when he reached the Black Hills, the fields had already been exploited, so he joined the floating population of fortune seekers (McWilliams 142).
Bierce received a job as the superintendent of The Black Hills Placer Mining Company because of his familiarity and map of the region. The company ran out of Rockerville,
South Dakota, and it suffered from grievous capital problems. These capital problems were caused by poor organization. Furthermore, while creditors and laborers were becoming
very unhappy with Bierce over the lack of capital, the owners of the company would not finance it further because they lacked faith in the expedition (McWilliams 144-145).
The company had owed Bierce money, which also put him into debt. Coming home only a year after his departure, this episode made Bierce become resentful were he was formerly
satirical. In addition, it caused further domestic disharmony because Mrs. Day then made it very clear, if it was not clear before, that she resented her daughter's marriage to a "rowdy scribbler" (McWilliams 147).
Back in San Francisco When Bierce went back to San Francisco, he asked for his old job back, but Pixley did not accept him because, with his absence, he had proved that he was dispensable. It was
difficult for Bierce to find any work writing because other newspapers hated him and he refused to bargain on what types of comments he would make (McWilliams 150-151). In 1881, Bierce joined a periodical called the
Wasp. In this newspaper, he started his "Prattler" column and began what would soon become The Devil's Dictionary. He soon became editor and remained in that position until 1886 (McWilliams 154).
In 1887 Bierce met William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the San Francisco Examiner (McWilliams 174). The Examiner was the paper in the West. Hearst would later be a
prominent figure in yellow journalism, but at this time, he was just beginning. He chose Bierce for the editorial page of the widely circulated, marking the beginning of Bierce's
fame beyond the local level. Bierce transferred his "Prattler" column to this newspaper, and because Bierce did not have to run the Examiner, he was able to do other writing.
Bierce wrote some of the best journalism in the West and a great bulk of it. He mastered the art of elegantly slamming the reputation of prominent figures, which made for very amusing writing (McWilliams 174-178).
During this time, Bierce found letters that a man fond of Mollie had written her. Although Mollie had done no wrong, Bierce could not get over such an incident. He immediately left
their home in St. Helena, and they separated. Mollie was graceful and courageous throughout the entire affair and never made a complaint about her husband and would never let anyone say Bierce had been unreasonable. Bierce in Washington D.C.
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Collis P. Huntington was a money king of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He was the major
advocate of the Funding Bill and was trying to buy votes in Congress for it (Saunders 71). During the height of the scandal, Bierce refused to shake Huntington's hand in a Senate
committee room (McWilliams 240). Huntington approached him afterwards on the steps of the capital and attempted to bribe him to stop printing his criticisms. Bierce told him that
his price was whatever he owed the government and he could pay it to the treasury. The story flew through the press nationwide giving Bierce national recognition. The Funding
Bill was defeated and Bierce returned to San Francisco. He would return to work for Hearst's New York Journal in 1900 while living in Washington
(Saunders 81). Bierce had left San Francisco due to personal problems that hurt his vulnerable pride and convinced him to dissolve his personal connections there. Living and
working in Washington for the next ten years, his relationship with Hearst went downhill because Bierce hated "yellow journalism" (Saunders 81-83). Bierce commented thus on his relationship with Hearst:
If ever two men were born to be enemies he and I are they. Each stands for everything that is most disagreeable to the other, yet we never clashed…. Either
congenitally or by induced perversity, he is inaccessible to the conception of an unselfish attachment or a disinterest motive…. Nobody but God loves him and he knows it (Saunders 83).
Bierce realized that he was losing steam as a fictional writer and as a man in general (Saunders 82). He knew he was past his peak, which drew him into a depression. He finally
gave up fiction to concentrate on journalism as a political reporter and continued to work for the Journal and the Examiner.
Bierce resigned from the newspapers, however, after being approached by Walter Neale, who wanted to publish Bierce's Collected Works. He assumed editorship of the collection
and became so engrossed in his work that he became anti-social. Weary of Washington, in 1910 he decided to return to San Francisco. Family Life
Bierce was a very distant father and a distant husband. He thought of kids as a nuisance instead of a blessing (Saunders 29). As his boys grew older, he demanded that they be
individualistic, self-reliant, and skeptical. He approved of rebelliousness as long as his sons were not ill mannered or dirty. However, with his daughter, he allowed Mollie to force
her to go to church because he felt it did not matter what views she held since she was a woman (McWilliams 148-149). An incidence with his children occurred when the local
pastor was visiting Mollie. Leigh ran to his parents and exclaimed, "Daddy, I just heard Day so 'Damn God'." Although the pastor and Mollie were absolutely stunned, Bierce, an
atheist, casually commented, "My child, how many times have I told you not to say 'Damn God' when you mean "God damn'!" (McWilliams 217).
Ambrose Bierce had a very troubled personal life. His son Day moved to northern California and eventually settled in Chico where he met a girl, Eva Adkins (McWilliams
191). Unfortunately, Adkins was in her second marriage to a drunk, and on one occasion, Day threw her husband out of her house; he was arrested. Day was tried and acquitted
"with honors." He was seventeen years old and became engaged to Adkins promptly after the trial. The young couple chose Neil Hubbs to be the best man. This proved to be a
poor choice because the night before the marriage, Hubbs and Adkins eloped. When the two returned, Day was waiting for them, and the two men started shooting each other at
first sight. Day died from gun wounds in 1889, hurting Bierce gravely (McWilliams 191-192). While Bierce was living in Washington D.C. and was employed with Hearst's New York Journal
, his second son Leigh Bierce died in 1901 of pneumonia due to alcoholism. He had been a valued reporter for the New York Telegraph (Saunders 82).
Only four years later, Mollie died of a heart failure (Saunders 83). She had been living with her mother in Los Angeles and ironically had filed for divorce a few months earlier because
she thought Bierce wanted the freedom to remarry. This had a crucial emotional impact on him (Saunders 83). The Final Years
After he moved back to San Francisco in 1910, an earthquake had torn the city into shambles, leaving not much of a city left. Bierce could not bear the sight of the destroyed
city, so he moved in with his brother Albert outside the city (Saunders 85). Feeling very out of place because his friends had either died or drifted out of public life, he commented
that, "San Francisco is not the same city that it was." He was referring to the loss of the frontier environment. No longer was there the West to escape to (Saunders 94). In 1912,
Bierce returned to Washington D.C. for a year to complete his Collected Works. However, while certain volumes were applauded, the set as a whole failed. Bierce was very distraught over this (Saunders 94). In 1913, Bierce was a complete wreck. Physically, he suffered from asthma and alcohol problems. Emotionally he was depressed from the failure of his Collected Works and from
the feeling of being past his prime (Saunders 97). He visited his daughter Helen in Bloomington, Illinois before he decided to go South to witness the revolution in Mexico.
He left his personal papers with her. Here Bierce stated his reasons for leaving:
Why should I remain in a country that is on the eve of woman's suffrage and prohibition? …In America you can't go east or west any more, or north, the only
avenue of escape is south. […] The fighting in Mexico interests me. I want to go down there and see if the Mexicans can shoot straight (Saunders 97).
At the age of seventy-one, Bierce did indeed go into Mexico in the midst of a revolution. His last correspondence was a letter postmarked from Chihuahua, Mexico and dated
December 26, 1913. This letter revealed that his intentions were to travel to Ojinaga on the railroad to join the forces of Pancho Villa. Besides this brief information, the death of
Ambrose Bierce remains a complete mystery, which is why his life is dated as 1842-1914? (Saunders 7). II. Writing Habits and Locations
Bierce had a very strong connection with nature (see Influences on Personality and Writing). His daughter Helen remembered that when they would go on walks in the woods,
animals would come to him when he gave a soft call. She also said that he always had a "pet" with him in his study. These pets ranged from squirrels to lizards. He wrote while
connected to nature and his inner thoughts (McWilliams 191). III. Literary Works The Fiend's Delight, 1872 Nuggets and Dust, 1873 Cobwebs from an Empty Skull
, 1874 Dance of Death, 1877 The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, 1892 Tales of Soldiers and Civilizations, 1892 Black Beetle in Amber, 1892 Can Such Things Be? 1893 Fantastic Fables, 1899
Shapes of Clay, 1903 Cynic's Work Book, 1906 The Shadow on the Dial, 1909 Write it Right, 1909 Collected Works,1912
IV. Critical Reviews Surrealism Bierce's tales were unrealistic, incredible events occurring in believable surroundings.
Moreover, his uncomplicated characters would destroy themselves suddenly because of shame or fear. However, these tales are "framed in fact" although they are extremely
exaggerated. His reality becomes surreal, which is believable due to the nature of war and his intense scrutiny of the war itself (Aaron 172-173).
Jay Martin also discussed Bierce's surrealism. Bierce's fiction in "An Imperfect Conflagration," gives an excellent example of this, "Early one June morning in 1872, I
murdered my father-an act which made a deep impression on me at the time" (Martin 122). Martin commented that to Bierce, everything in the world was grotesque. In order to
convey this to the public, "[Bierce] mingl[ed] innocence with crime, the beautiful with the horrible, the reputable with the profane" (Martin 122), giving his writing its surreal tone. Style
An anonymous reviewer suggested in The Atheneum when Collected Works was first published in 1910 that Bierce's writing was merely journalism with some literary elements
because his poor morals greatly affected his writing ([Review of The Collected Works, Vol. II 20). Martin complies with the fact that the morality of Bierce was indeed odd. However, he
comments that Bierce studied classic satire and wrote in the classic satiric tradition of Voltaire, Swift, Pope, etc., which was the reason for his style (116). Focus
Instead of focusing on the events of war, Bierce tends to focus on the physical and psychological consequences of the struggle. He also describes how men act in battle; the
personal experience of the war greatly outweighed any political issue (Aaron 173). However, as an anonymous reviewer commented in 1892, Bierce's description of solitary
suffering was too drawn out and showed no aspect of a soldier's pride. The writer also said that there were far too many details of physical and mental pain ([Review of In the Midst of Life] 15). Satire
SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never
had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and
sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities,
wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent (Bierce).
Bierce's perception of the world was a foe attacking his own reason (Martin 114). He assumed that there was danger beneath any pleasant surface, which may begin to explain
his intense attacks on public figures. His compulsion led him to scrutinize everything ruthlessly; this caused him to think deeper and deeper into delusion and ultimately decide
that all was a delusion. Throughout his life, Bierce antagonized society with humor to show the absurd nature of people and institutions (114-115).
F. J. Logan described Bierce's satire through his often-misinterpreted story "Owl Creek Bridge." He says that although it is an action story, it focuses on philosophical questions
and is satirical. It is satire in the sense that to those who are "bad readers," who do not "really read" the story, the end is quite shocking. As Logan says, "Would Bierce
purposely lampoon the inattentive? Yes" (196). Bierce was a very meticulous writer who knew what he was doing. Throughout the story, he interwove a variety of satire, even
against the protagonist. However, haphazard readers will not catch this, which is its own satire (197). Eric Solomon commented: "War fits Bierce's philosophy perfectly. The very nature of
combat involves a heightening, a tension, an absurdity of situation, an incongruity that calls for satire, suits his dark approach" (183). He also noted that Bierce's war stories are
among his best because he used "irony inherent in the nature of things." However, Bierce's stories about civilian life seem more labored because he has to define the context
of the story. While average readers can understand the context of a war, even without having experienced it, they cannot understand mining camps or the social stratum of San
Francisco without having been there. Since Bierce so often used inherent irony, these civilian stories are not near the level of his war stories (183). V. Works Cited
Aaron, Daniel. "Ambrose Bierce and the American Civil War." Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce. Ed. Cathy N Davidson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982.169.
Bierce, Ambrose. The Devil's Dictionary. in "The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: a Searchable Online Version at The Literature Network." 16 Feb. 2001. <http://www.literature-web.net/book.php3/devilsdictionary>.
Gullette, Alan. "Ambrose Bierce, Master of the Macabre." 20 Feb. 2001. <http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/horror/bierce.sht> Logan, F. J. "The Wry Seriousness of 'Owl Creek Bridge.'" Critical Essays on Ambrose
Bierce. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982. 195. Martin, Jay. "Ambrose Bierce." Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982. 114.
McWilliams, Carey. Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. United States of America: Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., 1929. "Review of In the Midst of Life." Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce. Ed. Cathy N.
Davidson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982. 15. "Review of The Collected Works, Vol. II." Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982. 20.
Saunders, Richard. Ambrose Bierce: The Making of a Misanthrope. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1985. Solomon, Eric. "The Bitterness of Battle: Ambrose Bierce's War Fiction." Critical Essays on
Ambrose Bierce. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982. 182. This essay was submitted by a student of Breen Reardon, an English teacher at Sycamore High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
-a collection of "Town Crier" and other California columns, published under name Dod
Grile, reason for nickname "Bitter Bierce"
-collection of California columns, gained Bierce honor at banquet with Twain and Miller
-sketches from Fun and Figaro
-written with William H. Rulofson and T. A. Harcourt, best seller, literary hoax
-originally The Monk of Berchtesgaden, a medieval Bavarian work
-translated by G. A. Danziger, and rewrote by Bierce
-Reprinted in England as
In the Midst of Life
-published by Western Authors Publishing Co. formed by Adolphe Danziger, W. C. Morrow, Joaquin Miller, and Ambrose Bierce
-only volume published (intended to publish more)
-rhymed criticism
-second and most famous collection of fiction
-collection of newspaper and magazine columns
-originally 500 "definitions" from newspapers
-in Collected Works,
increased to over 1000 in 1911
-became known as The Devil's Dictionary
-selected essays
-compiled by Walter Neale in twelve volumes