Bierce became something of a noted figure in California literary society, forming friendships with Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Joaquin Miller.

In 1868 he became the editor of The News Letter, for which he wrote his famous 'Town Crier' column.

A talented critic and satirist, his poems and other works were published in numerous newspaper columns for over 40 years, beginning with the Californian. After the war Bierce traveled with a military expedition to San Francisco, where he left the army and began a literary career.īierce published two books of poetry, Black Beetles in Amber (1892) and Shapes of Clay (1903), which were later published as the fourth and fifth volumes in his Collected Works (1909-1912). In such units as the Ninth Indiana Infantry Regiment and Buell's Army of the Ohio, he fought bravely in numerous military engagements, including the battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga and in Sherman's March to the Sea. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union army. The family moved to Indiana, where Bierce went to high school he later attended the Kentucky Military Institute. His parents were farmers and he was the tenth of 13 children, all of whom were given names beginning with 'A' at their father's insistence. For his sardonic wit and damning observations on the personalities and events of the day, he became known as 'the wickedest man in San Francisco.'īierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio. In his lifetime, Bierce was famous as a California journalist dedicated to exposing the truth as he understood it, regardless of whose reputations were harmed by his attacks. His bare, economical style of supernatural horror is usually distinguished from the verbally lavish tales of Poe. Like Poe, Bierce professed to be mainly concerned with the artistry of his work, yet critics find him more intent on conveying his misanthropy and pessimism. Often compared to the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, these stories share an attraction to death in its more bizarre forms, featuring depictions of mental deterioration, uncanny and otherworldly manifestations, and the horror of existence in a meaningless universe. Ambrose Bierce's literary reputation is based primarily on his short stories about the Civil War and the supernatural-a body of work that makes up a relatively small part of his total output.

Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce