The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, & Memoirs by Ambrose Bierce
Following service in the Union army during the Civil War, Bierce became a prolific journalist, short story writer, poet, and memoirist.
Bierce’s acclaimed collection of Civil War stories, In the Midst of Life, includes the well-known and widely reprinted, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”; while his collection of supernatural & psychological horror tales, Can Such Things Be?, remains one of the best of the genre. Second only to his contemporary Twain, Ambrose Bierce was a celebrated and acerbic wit in his own right—which is brilliantly displayed in his satirical lexicon, The Devil’s Dictionary. The book is an excellent introduction into the dark, witty and ingenious world of one of the great satirists of America.
Later in life he returned to the Civil War in a series of memoirs, Bits of Autobiography, before mysteriously disappearing in Mexico during their revolution in 1914.