The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce

"Bitter Bierce" earned his livelihood as the country's most provocative weekly columnist in the unrestrained days of the early Hearst empire. His forte was the demolishing attack in which verbal brilliance, remorseless wit, and plenty of spleen and irascibility were uniquely blended - wih a dash of bizarre fantasy added just for spice. His objects were people and things he hated: personal enemies, journalistic enemies, labor, religion, capital, corruption, women, etc. A genius at enraging people, Bierce was never good-natured like Shaw or Chesterton, but used his great gifts against hundreds of individuals, many of whom are remembered only through theimmortality their attacker unwittingly gave them. Most of his dazzling epigrams, cutting verses and prose pieces have long been completely unavailable, even though they are among Bierce's best work. Bierce was cordially disliked by his generation and he found it difficult to get book publication. As a reslt, much of his finest material appeared in ephemeral media. This volume contains the best of the mordant, sarcastic humor from Bierce's "Shapes of Clay," "Black beetles in Amber," and the privately-printed revisions of his journalistic work. Included are the great lampoon of Oscar Wilde in San Francisco; the demolition of Arthur MacEwen; the verbal massacre of dozens of minor poets and bad novelists; parodies ofwretched novels; ghoulishly humorous stories; epigrams; cynical attacks upon immorality, cant and hypocricy; the sarcasms that led victims to his office with horsewhips in hand; and much more. If you like your humor restrained and understated, you may not like this book, though you will certainly admire Bierce's skill. On the other hand, if you enjoyed "the Devil's Dictionary" and can appreciate reckless, strong wit that spares nothing and no one, dished up with boundless gusto and savage imagination, then this will be one of your very favorite books.