Bierce, Ambrose [Gwinett]
Bierce, Ambrose [Gwinett]( 1842–1914?),born in Ohio, served in the Civil War and became a brilliant and bitter journalist in San Francisco. In England (1872–75) he was on the staff of Fun, contributed to Tom Hood's Comic Annual, edited two issues of The Lantern for the exiled Empress Eugenie, and published under the pseudonym Dod Grile three collections of his vitriolic sketches and witticisms, The Fiend's Delight (1873), Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California (1873), and Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874). Returning to San Francisco, he wrote for Hearst's Examiner, and his wit and satire made him the literary dictator of the Pacific coast, strongly influencing many writers, including his friend George Sterling. Many of his works were potboilers, but in 1891 he issued Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, stories reminiscent of Poe's tales of horror and marked by an ingenious use of the...
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