Ambrose Gwinnet Bierce


They got him
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce was born on June 24th 1842 at Meigs County, Ohio. He fought for the Union in the Amercian civil war, (1861-1865). After the war he spent some time prospering for gold, but grew dissatisfied and took up journalism instead. He wrote for various magazines in London and San Fransisco, worked for famous newspaper-king William Randolph Hearst and penned several short stories, published his account of events during the civil war in his Tales of Soldiers and Civillians in 1891, predating famous author Erich Maria Remarque, often credited with being the first to realistically render the horror of warfare in his book, No News on the Western Front. (1929). He next published a collection of horror stories in a volume called Can such Things Be? in 1893. Can Such Things Be? was reviewed by Howard Phillips Lovecraft in an essay. In 1906 Bierce published his most famous book, The Devilīs Dictionary, a work which reveals his profound sense of black humour. It had originally been called "The Cynicīs Word Book" and appeared in serial form in 1881 to 1906. He also wrote a well-known horror-novel in a strong Lovecraftian style; An Inhabitant of Carcosa, but I donīt know exactly when. Much is made of this in Shea and Wilsonīs Illuminatus!, which claims that Bierce wrote about relativity before Einstein formulated his famous equation (1905), and the Oeidipus complex before Freud. In December 1913, at the age of 71, Bierce mysteriously disappeared for ever. It has been said that he had gone to Mexico to join Pancho Villaīs revolutionary army, but there is little evidence to confirm this. It is generally held among those who knows, or think that they knows, that They got him.

Charles Fort commented on the disapparence with the following, taken from his Wild Talents;

About six years before the disapparence of Ambrose Small, Ambrose Bierce had disappered. Newspapers all over the world have made much of the mystery of Ambrose Bierce. But what could the disapparence of one Ambrose, in Texas, have to do with the disapparance of another Ambrose, in Canada? Was somebody collecting Ambroses?

The term has lived on among collectors of odd disapparances and events as Ambrose-collecting.
Perhaps a term to add to the Devilīs Dictionary?
Bierce bibliography; some of his more famous stories are:

  • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - ?
  • An Inhabitant of Carcosa - ?
  • Can Such Things Be? - 1893
  • Tales of Soldiers and Civillians - 1891
  • The Devilīs Dictionary - 1881-1906
  • My Favourite Murder - ?

    A movie, based on the novel by Carlos Fuentes, was made about Ambrose Bierce supposed life in Mexico after his disapperance, starring Gregory Peck as Bierce, called Old Gringo.