Now, let me introduce the author of my chosen novel. This page comprises information about his individual style, cultural and histotical background and other famous works.

Ambrose Bierce

1842–1914

Ambrose Bierce's literary reputation is based primarily on his short stories about the Civil War and the supernatural. He was also a journalist, poet, essayist and critic. Often compared to the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, these stories share an attraction to death in its more bizarre forms, featuring depictions of mental deterioration, uncanny, otherworldly manifestations, and expressions of the horror of existence in a meaningless universe. Critics find him intent on conveying his misanthropy and pessimism. In his lifetime Bierce was famous as a California journalist dedicated to exposing the truth as he understood it. For his sardonic wit and damning observations on the personalities and events of the day, he became known as "the wickedest man in San Francisco, Bitter Bierce".

SOME FACTS ABOUT HIS LIFE AND LITERARY CAREER

He was born in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were farmers and he was the tenth of thirteen children, all of whom were given names beginning with "A" at their father's insistence. The family moved to Indiana, where Bierce went to high school; he later attended the Kentucky Military Institute. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union army. After the war Bierce traveled with a military expedition to San Francisco, where he left the army and prepared himself for a literary career.

In 1868 he became the editor of The News Letter, for which he wrote his famous "Town Crier" column. He wrote for Fun and Figaro magazines and created essays, epigrams, and short stories.

Bierce's major fiction was collected in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891) and Can Such Things Be? (1893). As in my story I have chosen, any of these stories are realistic depictions of the author's experiences in the Civil War. Other stories were "Chickamauga," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Death of Halpin Frayser." Bierce uses black humor, particularly in the ironic and hideous deaths his protagonists often suffer.

Bierce's most acclaimed work is The Devil's Dictionary(1906), a lexicon of its author's wit where Bierce vented much of his contempt for politics, religion, society, and conventional human values. (http://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/ - I strongly recommend you to read it, so many things here you'll find true and real).

In 1914 he informed some of his correspondents that he intended to enter Mexico as an observer during that country's civil war. He was never heard from again, and the circumstances of his death are uncertain.