- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAmbrose Gwinnett Bierce
- Nickname
- Bitter Bierce
- Ambrose Bierce was born on June 24, 1842 in Meigs County, Ohio, USA. He was a writer, known for The Twilight Zone (1959), The Damned Thing is of Such a Color! (2020) and 11 O'Clock: a Sense of Imminent Calamity (2023). He was married to Mary Ellen "Mollie" Day. He died in 1914 in Mexico.
- SpouseMary Ellen "Mollie" Day(December 25, 1871 - 1904) (divorced, 3 children)
- He had 12 brothers and sisters, and their rather eccentric father had given them all names that started with the letter "A". In order of birth, the Bierce siblings were: Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia and Aurelia.
- He was shot in the head by a Confederate sniper in the summer of 1864 at the Battle of Kennesaw Mt. in northwest Georgia.
- Thought to have died somewhere in Mexico. Many believe that he was killed while an observer in a battle between the forces of Mexican rebel Pancho Villa and federal troops. The body was never found.
- Exact date and place of death never determined.
- He was one of the best known journalists of the the last quarter of the 19th century. While working for William Randolph Hearst's "San Francisco Examiner", Bierce doggedly campaigned to bring down Collis Huntington, owner and president of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He won the battle in the US Senate and Huntington was forced to break up his railroad conglomerate. Bierce later spoke out vehemently against the Spanish-American War, though his boss, Hearst, is credited as one of the war's principal agitators.
- [From his 1906 "Cynic's Word Book," later retitled "The Devil's Dictionary"] Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder.
- [From his 1906 "Cynic's Word Book," later retitled "The Devil's Dictionary"] Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
- [From his 1906 "Cynic's Word Book," later retitled "The Devil's Dictionary"] Lawsuit, n. a machine which you go into as a pig and come out as a sausage."
- [From his 1906 "Cynic's Word Book," later retitled "The Devil's Dictionary"] Painting, n. The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.
- [Last words of his final written communication, a letter to his niece, Lora, in December 1913] Goodbye, if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico -- ah, that is euthanasia!
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