Born* into squalor in the backwoods of Ohio to ferociously Christian* parents, Ambrose Bierce went on to become celebrated and reviled as a merciless* critic, professional cynic,* and hired purveyor of corrosive commentary.
It may have been Bierce's battlefield experiences during the Civil War that removed any vestiges of civility from his disposition. As a newspaper columnist and short story writer, he worked tirelessly to expose hypocrisy* and offend the sensibilities of his day. First in San Francisco and later in Washington, DC, his scorching wit and literary bludgeoning were pitiless in their misanthropy.
In 1911, Bierce gathered a collection of irreverent* and savage definitions from his popular newspaper column, and republished them as The Devil's Dictionary. The resulting book is acclaimed as a landmark in 20th century satirical literature.
Biographers will be forever forced to place a question mark instead of a date for his final demise. A year after the publication of The Devil's Dictionary he vanished on an inchoate journey into revolutionary Mexico. One of his last letters to reach the United States read, "being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot ... is a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs."
In this edition of The Devil's Dictionary, Bierce's timeless elucidations are illustrated with new graphics by William H. Bonney.
*Birth: The first and direst of all disasters. *Christian: One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs ofhis neighbor. *Mercy: An attribute beloved of offenders. *Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are not as they ought to be.
*Hypocrite: One who, professing virtues that he does not respect, secures the advantage of seeming to be what he despises. *Reverence: The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man.
Look inside:
The Devil's Dictionary, with illustrations by William H. Bonney
