Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce

One of the most interesting figures to emerge at the turn of the twentieth century was Ambrose Bierce, whose acerbic columns in the San Francisco Examiner spread his fame as Americas most bitter cynic and misanthrope, and whose disappearance into Mexico surrounded his name with an aura of mystery. Although best known during his lifetime for his journalism and always critical of his own writingthe magnificent intention mocked by the actual achievementBierces fiction endures, especially his short stories about the Civil War. Originally published in the 1890s and rediscovered in the 1920s, the Civil War stories are filled with unsparing descriptions of death and suffering, disillusionment and fatalism. They also show a concern for form and craftsmanship, a controlled irony, and an economy of detail that are distinctly modern. In this pioneering study of Bierces stories, Stuart Woodruff examines the best and worst of Bierces fiction with clarity and excellent critical sense, and he traces the causes of Bierces success and failure as a writer, analyzing his inability to reconcile the extremes of temperament and belief that marked his life and give his stories their characteristic form. Among the pieces discussed: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Mocking-bird, One of the Missing, Chickamauga, Hata the Shepherd, What I Saw at Shiloh, and excerpts from The Devils Dictionary and Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.