The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

Dover Publications, 1963 - Fiction - 232 pages

Insulting poems, cruel epigrams, parodies of bad fiction, character assassinations by America’s bitterest, wittiest humorist. Selection includes lampoon of Oscar Wilde; ghoulish horror stories; sarcasm that caused duels, more. Edited by George Barkin.

Contents

• Selections from Shapes of Clay: 3
• Not Guilty: 41
• A Social Call: 61

About the author

Ambrose Bierce was a brilliant, bitter, and cynical journalist. He is also the author of several collections of ironic epigrams and at least one powerful story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Bierce was born in Ohio, where he had an unhappy childhood. He served in the Union army during the Civil War. Following the war, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a columnist for the newspaper the Examiner, for which he wrote a number of satirical sketches. Bierce wrote a number of horror stories, some poetry, and countless essays. He is best known, however, for The Cynic's Word Book (1906), retitled The Devil's Dictionary in 1911, a collection of such cynical definitions as "Marriage: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two." Bierce's own marriage ended in divorce, and his life ended mysteriously. In 1913, he went to Mexico and vanished, presumably killed in the Mexican revolution.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce; Dover books of the general interest; Dover books on literature and drama; Dover humor collections; Volume 768 of Dover publications, T; Volume 768 of “A” Dover Edition
• Author: Ambrose Bierce
• Publisher: Dover Publications, 1963
• ISBN: 0486207684, 9780486207681
• Length: 232 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Literary; Humor / General