Title: Ambrose Bierce : alone in bad company /
Authors: Morris, Roy; Vidal, Gore, 1925-2012
Publisher: Crown Publishers,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Bierce, Ambrose, Biography.; Bierce, Ambrose,; Authors, American Biography; Journalists United States Biography
Abstract: When 71-year-old Ambrose Bierce disappeared into revolution-torn Mexico in 1913, he probably had more enemies than any man alive. This was only fair; he had labored long and hard to make himself hateful, and in the end he succeeded all too well. The targets of his printed abuse ranged from the mightiest and most rapacious robber baron to the meekest and least offensive would-be poet, although Bierce reserved his sharpest barbs for "that immortal ass, the average man." Bierce himself was anything but average. As the only American writer of any stature to fight in and survive the Civil War, his groundbreaking short stories of that war, including his most famous work, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," have had a lasting influence on every subsequent American author dealing with war, from Stephen Crane and John Dos Passos to Ernest Hemingway and Norman Mailer.
Contents: Direst of all disasters -- What I saw of Shiloh -- The woods of Chickamauga -- A brave and gallant fellow -- I respectfully decline the appointment -- The mentor, whip and mirror of the town -- A better country -- Prattle -- The Devil and the Wasp -- The friction that we name grief -- What a thing it is to be a ghost -- There be divers sorts of death.