标题：安布罗斯·比尔斯
生平概况
  安布罗斯·葛温奈特·比尔斯（英语：Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce；1842年6月24日－1913年或之后）是一位美国记者、短篇小说、传说与讽刺小说作家。著名作品有短篇小说《鹰溪桥上》（An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge）和讽刺小说《魔鬼辞典》（The Devil's Dictionary）等。
生于俄亥俄州的梅格斯，在印第安纳州长大。中学肄业一年后去印刷所充当学徒。1861年4月入联邦军充当志愿兵，参加南北战争。1866年去旧金山，1868年任《新闻信札》杂志编辑。1871年发表短篇小说《闹鬼的山谷》。1872至1875年间旅居英国，为伦敦《玩笑》等杂志撰稿，替被放逐的欧仁妮皇后(拿破仑三世之妻)编辑了两期《灯笼》，并以多德·格里尔的笔名出版《魔鬼的乐趣》(1873)、《在加利福尼亚淘出的金块和金粉》(1873)、《来自空脑壳的蜘蛛网》(1874)等作品。1877年后在旧金山《阿尔戈英雄》等杂志任编辑。1896年迁往首都华盛顿。1913年，由于厌倦美国的生活而去战事纷起的墨西哥采访农民领袖潘乔·比利亚，后即失去消息。有人猜测他死于1914年1月对奥希纳加的围攻[1]。
比尔斯的短篇小说都带有愤世嫉俗思想，喜欢用讽刺笔调处理死亡和恐怖的主题。以致于被人们称为“辛辣比尔斯”（Bitter Bierce）。主要作品有短篇小说集《军人与平民的故事》(1891)，后易名为《在人生中间》(1892)；《这种事情可能吗?》(1893)，其中叙述的故事离奇怪诞，有强烈的“世纪末”色彩。此外，还有《愤世者词典》(1906)，后易名为《魔鬼词典》(1911)，尖锐辛辣又不失机智和幽默。
失踪事件
  1913年10月26日，为朋友寄出最后一封信之后，声明说，他已经厌恶美国式的文明。他已经购置了一套马车，并驱车前往饱经战争创伤的墨西哥心脏，去寻找“真、善、美”。但没有人知道他的未来怎样，71岁的比尔斯神秘失踪。这是美国文学史上最著名的失踪事件，在美国近年来拍摄电影《从黄昏到黎明》第三集《刽子手之女》（From Dusk Till Dawn 3 The Hangman's Daughter）中，布尔斯在美、墨边境失踪后，闯入阿兹特克吸血圣坛，上演了一系列传奇故事。其实，布尔斯失踪后，警察百般调查，均无结果，人们只能把他的死亡年代估计为1914。《鬼东西》（1894）是他的一个短篇恐怖小说，篇幅虽短，但悬念迭起，写法与构思均不同凡响，曾被选入美国博尼和莱乌赖特出版公司1919年版《最好的鬼故事》一书。
作品目录
出版书目The Fiend's Delight(1873) (novella) 
Cobwebs from an Empty Skull(1874) (short story collection) 
The Dance of Death(with Thomas Arundel Harcourtand William Rulofson, as William Herman) (1877) (satyric work) 
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians(1891) (short story collection) 
Black Beetles in Amber(1892) (poetry) 
The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter(1892) (with Adolphe De Castro) (novella) 
Can Such Things Be?(1893) (short story collection) 
Fantastic Fables(1899) (short story collection) 
The shadow on the dial, and other essays[16](1909) (nonfiction) 
The Devil's Dictionary(1911) (first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906) (nonfiction) 
Collected Works(1909) (short story collection) 
Write It Right(1909) (nonfiction) 
A Horseman in the Sky, A Watcher by the Dead, The Man and the Snake(1920) (tales) 
A Vision of Doom: Poems by Ambrose Bierce(1980) (poetry) 
The Best of the Devil's Dictionary[17](2011) (nonfiction) 
"Civil War Stories" [18](2011) (short stories with autobiographical essay)
短篇小说The Haunted Valley(1871) 
An Unfinished Race(1873) 
An Inhabitant of Carcosa(1887) 
Four Days in Dixie 
One of the Missing (1888) 
The Boarded Window(1891) 
Chickamauga(1891) 
The Eyes of the Panther (1891) 
Haita the Shepherd(1891) 
The Man and the Snake(1891) 
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot(1891) 
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge(1891) 鹰溪桥上
The Suitable Surrounding (1891) 
A Tough Tussle(1891) 
A Watcher by the Dead(1891) 
An Adventure at Brownville (with Ina Lillian Peterson)(1893) 
A Baby Tramp(1893) 
Bodies of the Dead (1893) 
The Death of Halpin Frayser(1893) 
The famous Gilson bequest (1893) 
John Bartine's Watch(1893) 
The Night-Doings at "Deadman's"(1893) 
A Psychological Shipwreck(1893) 
The Realm of the Unreal(1893) 
The Secret of Macarger's Gulch(1893) 
The Damned Thing(1894) 
A Vine on a House(1905) 
The Moonlit Road(1907)
The Time the Moon Fought Back (1911) 
Beyond the Wall(1909) 
A Diagnosis of Death(1909) 
A Jug of Sirup(1909) 
Moxon's Master(1909) 
Staley Fleming's Hallucination(1909) 
The Stranger(1909) 
The Way of Ghosts (1909) 
The Affair at Coulter's Notch
An Affair of Outposts
The Applicant 
An Arrest 
The Baptism of Dobsho 
A Bottomless Grave 
The City of the Gone Away 
The Coup de Grace 
The Crime at Pickett's Mill(1888) 
Curried Cow 
The Failure of Hope and Wandel 
George Thurston
A Holy Terror 
A Horseman in the Sky
The Hypnotist
An Imperfect Conflagration
The Ingenious Patriot 
Jo. Dunfer. Done for
John Mortonson's Funeral
Jupiter Doke, brigadier-general 
Killed at Resaca 
An Heiress from Redhorse
The Little Story 
The Major's Tale 
The Man Out of the Nose 
The Mocking-Bird 
The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (with Adolphe De Castro) 
Three and One Are One
Mr Swiddler's Flip-Flap 
My Favourite Murder
Mysterious Disappearances 
Oil of Dog
One Kind of Officer 
One of Twins
One Officer, One Man
One Summer Night
Parker Adderson, Philosopher 
Perry Chumly's Eclipse 
A Providential Intimation 
The Race at Left Bower 
A Resumed Identity
Revenge 
A Revolt of the Gods 
Some Haunted Houses 
A Son of the Gods 
The Story of a Conscience 
The Tail of the Sphinx 
Visions of the Night 
The Widower Turmore