Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale. - Gabriel Garcia MarquezFor my money, no writer's life is more intriguing than that of Ambrose Bierce. First off, he was a cynic and a cynicism is always good for a writer's bone and blood structure. His The Devil's Dictionary is not only a hoot to read, but also proves that humor is merely the exaggeration of the truth!
He was one of 13 children (which for those numerologists might prove intriguing) and his father gave all 13 of his children names that stared with A. So anyone knowing the family just had to know some of those kids were going to turn out different with an old man like Marcus Bierce. After all, what else is there to do in southern Ohio but fornicate and name your kids. Trust me, I've been there.
Ambrose joined the Civil War and fought, in several major battles including Shiloh and received a serious head wound at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia.
He married Mary Day on Christmas 1871 and they had two sons and one daughter. Both of his sons died before he did - one was shot in a fight and the other died from pneumonia. Bierce himself suffered from asthma as well as continuing physical problems from his war wounds. After resigning from the Army he went on to live in London and San Fransisco, contributed and edited for several newspapers. But Bierce was also a restless dude and travelled all over the country looking for new adventures, dropping in and out of his journalistic pursuits and eventually ended up as a regular columnist for The San Francisco Examiner.
Bierce went on to write novels and short stories, including probably his most well known one, An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge (read the story here), and also published several volumes of poetry and his much quoted, The Devil's Dictionary - which quite clearly displays his cynicism.
But perhaps the most intriguing thing about Ambrose Bierce is his fate. Nobody knows for certain about where and when he died, for he simply disappeared, although it is highly believed he was killed one way or another in the Mexican Revolution. That he went down there to either write about or join Pancho Villa's forces - the subject of Carlos Fuentes' novel, The Old Gringo.
One of the main reasons most historians believe Bierce died in the revolution was because of a line in a letter he wrote to his niece wherein he stated: "Good-bye — 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!" Bierce was somewhere in his 70's when he disappeared. Adios amigo - we should all check out this way and let the speculation begin.
Some stuff that happened on this day in History:
Leonardo da Vinci died (1519) and has now officially been dead longer than he had been alive.
Good Housekeeping made its debut in 1885 - as if women didn't already know how to keep a good house.
Cat on A Hot Tin Roof won the Pulitzer Prize for Tennessee Williams (1955)
This is Casanova's birthday (1725) who when he wasn't writing he was doing that other thing - which is pretty good advice for any writer.
It is also the birthday of George McDonald Fraser - author of the Flashman series of novels.
...other stuff happened too, but you'll have to look it up for yourself.
I've just been passed a piece of paper by Big Sal which reads:
Conversations Overheard In Coffee Shops
Young men and women with unwashed
Hair drinking expensive coffee and Chai Tea
Discuss Bush, City Hall, Tantra Sex, etc., while
Two 30 something women, one blonde, one
Brunette, eat sandwiches with cheese and
Salami on Pennie bread and spoon the soup
Of the day into their mouths. One tells the other
About her divorce. What a bastard he was.
A new-age preacher at the next table
Counsels a couple with long hair and various
Tattoos (suppose to point out their individuality)
Planning their upcoming wedding.
They come and they go – they marry and
Divorce and end up dead like everybody else
Who’s gone before them in all time every
Where as surely as if they were struck and
Killed by a city bus or murdered by Huns.
Oh well.
live well, dream big, don't let your mouth write any checks your ass can't cash.
http://www.authorbillbrooks/
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