Last month’s presentation given by Mark Shapiro on Ambrose Bierce referred to his short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” conceded by many as one of the greatest literately works ever written.  In 2005, Kurt Vonnegut referred to “Occurrence” in his book A Man Without a Country as one of the greatest works of American literature, and called anyone who hadn’t read it a “twerp”. If you would like to read this short story you can find it at the following web page. Enjoy. http://fiction.eserver.org/short/occurrence_at_owl_creek.html If you are one of those who still have not ventured into ciberspace and the internet but would like to have a copy of this short story let me know and I will print one for you.

            Bierce was born in Ohio on June 24, 1842 and was the tenth of thirteenth children. He was not close to his father and he had had a very poor relationship with his mother. His parents were poor, but literate and wished him to take an interest in books and writing, which he would later develop after the war. Upon the outbreak of war, he enlisted with the Federal army soon after President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, and was one of the first to do so in his county. He saw extensive service in the war and fought in several battles. He was involved in the Battle of Shiloh and in Sherman’s March and on June 23, 1864, he was shot in the left temple by a Confederate sniper. Luckily for him, considering the medicine of the time, he survived, but the bullet remained in his temple and he suffered severe headaches for the rest of his life and even the slightest exertion would make them worse. His head wound ended his fight in the Civil War.

Amrose Bierce and "the Skull of a Former Freind"

         After the war, he continued in the army and went out to San Francisco where he later resigned with the rank of brevet major. He remained in California in San Francisco where he married in 1871. He had two sons and a daughter, of whom he outlived the sons and divorced his wife in 1904 after her questionable conduct several years before. His headaches were further complicated by his constant asthma.

            After settling in California, Bierce began his literary career. Around that time, he made friends with Mark Twain with whom he was about as close as possible for a man with his personality.  An early piece that brought him to prominence was an editorial he wrote in 1887 as a response to the Secretary of War’s efforts to return captured Confederate flags to their owners. Many objected, but Bierce did not see the need of the hatred and support the return, stating it was his place to voice and opinion as he helped to capture the said flags. Such editorials brought him to the attention William Randolph Hurst and he later went to work for his paper, the San Francisco Examiner where he wrote a regular editorial.

            Bierce was very confrontational and had a distaste for authority figures such, editors, despite being for a time. His dislike of authority figures was reflected in his writings. Bierce often attacked other writers, politicians, and even those who tried to be close to him. He even attacked Oscar Wilde and his work when the he visited San Francisco. Wilde and the public did not pay attention and Wilde remained vastly popular with the locals. Although his attacks were usually at people and might be seen as humorous by some, other writings were very discriminatory, such as one piece which was strongly anti-Semitic. His harsh criticisms earned him several nicknames including “Diabolical Bierce” and the most popular, “Bitter Bierce”, and his favorite, “The Wickedest Man in San Francisco”.

            Bierce’s work about the war was quite shocking for its day and remains so today. He described the battles very vividly and described all the horrors of battle. One description that distinguished Bierce was his description of the Battle of Shiloh. Bierce began writing about the war at a time when scholars were just beginning to take interest in the war, since it had only ended a couple of decades before. Another piece by Bierce that gained notoriety was An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge which was published in 1891. In the story, a Confederate sympathizer is about to be hanged for the sabotage of a railroad bridge for which he was not responsible. As he was to be hanged, the rope broke and he was able to escape under fire. He manages to make it back home undetected, but when he arrives, he feels a strong pain in his neck and all goes black. It turns out that he never escaped and was actually hanged in reality. This twist ending has become famous and has been repeated numerous times. It has been said that this story is a precursor of post-modern literature.

            Another famous work by Bierce is the Devil’s Dictionary which he complied over several years. This book takes the form of a regular dictionary, but its definitions are a satire. Below are some sample definitions:

1. Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous
2. Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
3. Mayonnaise, n. One of the sauces that serve the French in place of a state religion.
4. Politician, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.

            Bierce’s personality led to several clashes and his severe criticisms of other writers led their own against him. He took to carrying a loaded pistol with him at all times and on his desk he kept a human skull which he said came from a former friend. He was not close to many people and as a person would become closer to him, he would push them away again. One writer who was fond of Bierce received severe criticism from him. The author was Stephen Crane and his book, The Red Badge of Courage, was about the adventures and troubles of a soldier in the Civil War. Crane wrote realistically about war despite having been born after the war and never having been in combat. This fact and the fact he became more famous than the genuine veteran Bierce’s realistic descriptions gained Crane severe criticism from the former.

            Bierce was well known amongst authors for his literary work, but with the public, he was better known for his editorials as this was the days of sensational yellow journalism. One of his poems did, however, gain him national attention, albeit negative. In 1900, the governor of Kentucky was shot and killed and Bierce published an editorial in Hearst’s paper about the event. In the editorial, Bierce wrote that no one could find the bullet that killed the governor as it was on its way to killing President McKinley. There was little stir at the time, but when McKinley was shot and killed the following year, there was outrage against Hearst and his paper. The poem ended Hearst’s efforts to become president, but despite the setback. Hearst did not reveal Bierce as the author nor did he apologize for the incident. In actuality, Bierce’s poem was meant to show dismay rather than a call to kill McKinley.

Dr. Shapiro Speaking About the Life of Ambrose Bierce

            Bierce’s death was perhaps one of the most interesting events in literary history. In his seventy-first year in 1913, Bierce made a tour of his former battle sites from the Civil War and then headed to Mexico to observe Pancho Villa (before his murderous rampage in New Mexico in 1916) and watch the Mexican Revolution as it happened. He was not heard from again after December of 1913 and his fate remains unknown. Some say that he came back to kill himself at the Grand Canyon and others state that he was a spy for the Federal Government on Mexico—neither of which seem plausible nor have been proven.

            Bierce was one of the most controversial writers of his generation, but his realistic writing style foreshadowed that in the years after his death. He was a major influence on Ernest Hemmingway, both of whim did not like their mothers and were wounded in battle. In retrospect, many scholars argue that Bierce’s writings about his experiences in the Civil War are among the best on war, even better than those of Hemmingway and Stephen Crane’s work of fiction.