The Collected Writings of Ambrose Bierce

Bierce was a working journalist as well as a short story author, so all that scope comes in this single volume compendium. It holds up very well for Bierce was a writer I have always admired.

For the DEVIL'S DICTIONARY alone it is worth it. Example:
DIARY, n. A daily record of that part of one's life, which he can relate to himself without blushing.
Bierce's wicked sense of humor is apparent on every page.

I love Ambrose Bierce. Not for most readers, Bierce has a dark side to rival Poe.

US mid-western prolific writer who fought in the Civil War opines on multiple topics from kindness, compromise and Christianity.

AMBROSE BIERCE: Portrait of a Misanthrope by Clifton Fadiman

IN THE MIDST OF LIFE: TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS

SOLDIERS
* A Horseman in the Sky
* An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
* Chickamauga
* A Son of the Gods
* One of the Missing
* Killed at Resaca
* The Affair at Coulter's Notch
* The Coup de Grace
* Parker Adderson, Philosopher
* An Affair of Outposts
* The Story of Conscience
* One Kind of Officer
* On Officer, One Man
* George Thurston
* The Mocking Bird

CIVILIANS
* The Man Out of the Nose
* An Adventure at Brownville
* The Famous Gilson Bequest
* The Applicant
* A Watcher of the Dead
* The Man and the Snake
* A Holy Terror
* The Suitable Surroundings
* The Boarded Window
* A Lady from Redhorse
* The Eyes of the Panther

THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY

CAN SUCH show more THINGS BE?
* The Death of Halpin Frayser
* The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
* One Summer Night
* The Moonlit Road
* A Diagnosis of Death
* Moxon's Master
* A Tough Tussle
* One of Twins
* The Haunted Valley
* A Jug of Sirup
* Staley Fleming's Hallucination
* A Resumed Identity
* A Baby Tramp
* The Night-Doings at "Deadman's"
* Beyond the Wall
* A Psychological Shipwreck
* The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
* John Mortonson's Funeral
* The Realm of the Unreal
* John Bartine's Watch
* The Damned Thing
* Haita the Shepherd
* An Inhabitant of Carcosa
* The Stranger

FANTASTIC FABLES
* Fables from "Fun"
* Aesopus Emendatus
* Old Saws With New Teeth
* Fables in Rhyme

THE MONK AND THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER

NEGLIGIBLE TALES
* A Bottomless Grave
* Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General
* The Widower Turmore
* The City of the Gone Away
* The Major's Tale
* Curried Cow
* A Revolt of the Gods
* The Baptism of Dobsho
* The Race at Left Bower
* The Failure of Hope & Wandel
* Perry Chumly's Eclipse
* A Providential Intimation
* Mr. Swiddler's Flip-Flap
* The Little Story

THE PARENTCIDE CLUB
* My Favorite Murder
* Oil of Dog
* An Imperfect Conflagration
* The Hypnotist show less

Bierce es uno de los escritores más enigmáticos de la literatura en inglés. Sus relatos, insólitos y llenos de humor negro, le encuadran en los seguidores del magisterio de Poe. Luchó en la Guerra de Secesión (1861 - 1865), y muchos años después, en 1913, cruzó la frontera de México para unirse a las tropas de Pancho Villa, y desde entonces se pierde todo rastro de su vida. Este episodio está reflejado en la película "Gringo Viejo" (1985), en la que Gregory Peck da vida a un personaje basado en el real Ambrose Bierce. "El puente sobre el río del Búho" es su relato más famoso, en el que desarrolla una impecable paradoja temporal.