AMBROSE GWINETT BIERCE

Background

He remains a complex figure, idealistic and cynical, bitter and kind, sadistic, frustated, morose, arrogant, brilliant, and, as he called himself, a "curmudgeon philosopher."

Education

Ambrose received a meager education, did various farm chores, was a printer's devil, and worked briefly in an Elkhart brickyard and a grogshop. Bierce had supplemented his rudimentary schooling by reading and, through the generosity of an uncle, a brief attendance during 1859 at the Kentucky Military Institute.

Career

In December 1862 he was commissioned a second lieutenant, later becoming a staff officer and topographical engineer under the command of General W. B. Hazen.

On Jan. 16, 1865, while he was in winter quarters at Huntsville, Ala., he received his discharge. For a few months he was a Treasury Department agent stationed in Selma, Ala. After trips to New Orleans and Colon, Panama, he accepted General Hazen's offer of an engineering post in a military expedition by the War Department for the inspection of western lands and forts. After extensive travel, the expedition reached San Francisco, where Bierce resigned.

In 1866 he went to work as a night watchman at the United States Sub-Treasury in San Francisco. Shortly afterward he decided to become a writer.

From 1899 to 1913 Bierce worked desultorily for the Hearst interests in Washington D.C., traveled, and did tedious revisions on his collected works.

Achievements

• Bierce was the most provocative literary man in the West and attracted many admirers or "pupils."

Works

• book

  • Figaro, Fun, and Hood's Comic Annual

  • Nuggets and Dust Panned out in California

  • The Fiend's Delight

  • Cobwebs from an Empty Skull

  • The Devil's Dictionary

  • Tales of Soldiers and Civilians

  • The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter

  • Black Beetles in Amber

  • Can Such Things Be?

  • Fantastic Fables

  • Shapes of Clay

  • The Cynic's Word Book

  • The Shadow on the Dial

  • Collected Works

Connections

He married to Mary Ellen "Mollie" Day (25 December 1871 - 1904) (divorced), they had 3 children

Wife:

Mary Ellen "Mollie" Day

Son:

Day

Son:

Leigh

Daughter:

Helen