Ambrose Bierce was born on June 24, 1842 in Meigs County, Ohio. He was the tenth child of the thirteen that Marcus and Laura Bierce had. He grew up at Elkhart in northern Indiana. He attended high school for one year and later attended the Kentucky Military School for one year before dropping out.
When he was fifteen years old, he took up what was to be the first of his many jobs. He worked as an apprentice with the newspaper, The Northern Indianan. He joined the army in 1861 and was made lieutenant in 1862. He served the Unionists in the Civil war; he saw action with the Ninth regiment, Indiana Volunteers. His experiences during the war provided him with a lot of material as a writer, especially the battle at Shiloh, which inspired one of his best-known stories “Chickamauga,” written in 1889. At the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Bierce suffered a bullet injury to his left temple.
His military career ended in the year 1865, only to resume in 1866 when he became a part of Gen. Hazen’s expedition across Omaha and Nebraska. The object of the expedition was the inspection of military outposts in these regions and Bierce served as a topographical officer. The expedition culminated in San Francisco, where Bierce settled after resigning from the army with the rank of brevet Major.
Bierce wrote for a number of periodicals that included the Overland Monthly, in which the first story that he wrote, “The Haunted House” was published in 1871. He also contributed to the Argonaut, the Wasp and the News-letter and California Advertiser, of which he became the editor in 1868.
In 1871, Bierce married Mollie Day, who was the daughter of a wealthy businessman who had mining interests. He lived in England from 1872 to 1875. During this period, the three volumes of his sketches and epigrams, namely, The Fiend’s Delight (1872), Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California (1872), and Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874) were published. While in England, Bierce also contributed to the magazines Figaro and Fun
After returning to the U.S, Bierce once again settled in San Francisco. He worked for the U.S mint. In 1877, he co-authored the book “The Dance of death” with Thomas Harcourth. He used the pen name William Herman for this novel. Bierce spent the period from 1879-1880 working as a manager for a New York mining company in South Dakota. Subsequently, he once again returned to San Francisco where he was to stay until 1889.
Bierce joined the San Francisco Examiner in the year 1887. He had a long and fruitful stint with this paper, which was owned by William Randolph Hearst. His writings for the San Francisco Examiner led him to become one of the most influential writers on the West Coast. However, his sardonic wit and critical social commentary often got him in trouble. His column, “Prattle”, which was quite well received contained stories, epigrams, and gossip.
Bierce had two sons and a daughter from his marriage to Mollie Day. However, the couple had a strained relationship, they separated in 1888 and were divorced in 1905. His two sons, Day and Leigh both died young. Day was killed fighting a duel in 1889 and Leigh succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 26.
His collection of short stories, “Tales of Soldiers and Civilians” was published in 1891. These writings reflected the influence of the works of Edgar Allan Poe on Ambrose Bierce. This collection contained one of his best-known stories “An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. He also wrote “The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter”, “Black Beetles in Amber”, both of which were published in 1892.
Bierce was opposed to the corrupt railroad owners in the state of California. His successful crusade against Collis Huntington, where he single handedly raised public opinion against a legislation that would have excused Huntington from repaying his debt to the federal government, is seen as the beginning of the end of the political power of the railroad owners.
Bierce moved to Washington D.C in the year 1896. There, he contributed content to the New York Journal and Cosmopolitan magazine. He was a literary critic of repute who did not much favor the realism in novels. He chose to concentrate on writing short stories instead of novels. Bierce published “The Cynic’s Word Book,” in 1906, which was a collection of his stinging aphorisms and epigrams.
Later, when he published his collected works that ran into 12 volumes, he renamed this work as “The Devil’s Dictionary,” which is considered to be a masterpiece of satire. Two definitions from the dictionary are reproduced below.
- Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
- Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.
The tone and content of the satire of Bierce has much in common with the writings of Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Bierce was also influenced by the philosopy of Stoicism. Bierce retired from writing at the age of seventy-one, in the year 1913.
He left for Mexico, and it is conjectured that he died there during the civil war at the siege of Ojinega, on January 11, 1914. One of the last letters he posted was on September 10, 1913, to his friend Samuel Loveman. “The Old Gringo” by Carlos Fuentes is a fictional account of the last days of Bierce.
Bierce was an idealist who took a cynical view of what he saw around him. This led him to be labeled as “Bitter Bierce.” He was a good friend of Mark Twain and was reputed to possess an even more devastating and withering wit than the latter.
In his long and distinguished career, Bierce was a newspaper columnist, essaysist, novelist, and a distinguished satirist. He is considered to be one of America’s foremost literary figures of the 19th century whose influence extended well beyond America.
