Ambrose Bierce wrote satires, short stories, fiction and was
also an editorialist and journalist. He
was born in Meigs County, Ohio to Marcus and Laura Bierce. His mother was actually related to famous
Philadelphia icon, Andrew Bradford. His
parents were the ones who inspired him to write and read books.
When he
turned 15 he went to work for an Ohio newspaper as an apprentice (printer’s
devil). Bierce also enlisted to fight in
the Civil War. He was written about in
the newspapers for his heroic actions while under live fire. By 1862, he was a First Lieutenant as well
as a topographical engineer drawing up maps for battlefield assaults. Bierce wrote memoirs and short stories about
the horrific experiences he encountered while in action, one of the most famous
ones being, “What I saw of Shiloh.”
After a serious head injury, Bierce only fought one more time before
being discharged in 1865.
After his
time in the Civil War, he moved to San Francisco and published his first
poem. The next year he got an offer to
edit for News Letter and he quickly
took the opportunity. By 1875 he was
editor of the Argonaut. While he was with the Argonaut, he wrote a column of his own called “prattle.” This column was full of all his “critical
observations of human behavior and society.”
Bierce loved writing satires of the people and things he saw in his
life.
Ambrose
Bierce is most famous for his “Devil’s Dictionary,” which was full of his witty
sayings and quotes. He defined peace in
the Devil’s Dictionary as “A period
of cheating between two periods of war.”
Finally, Bierce was given a chance to write for a national audience as
William Hearst hired him for the San Francisco
Examiner, New York Journal, and Cosmopolitan magazine. Everyone now had a chance to laugh at
his “abusive humor,” which he is celebrated for.
Sources: American Journalists
http://www.online-literature.com/bierce/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce
http://www.ambrosebierce.org/journal.html
BY: RJ Kaminski
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