Some small part of this book being personally censorious, and in that part the names of real persons being used without their assent, it seems fit that a few words be said of the matter in sober prose. What it seems well to say I have already said with sufficient clarity in the preface of another book, somewhat allied to this by that feature of its character. I quote from "Black Beetles in Amber:
Bierce was considered a master of pure English by his contemporaries, and virtually everything that came from his pen was notable for its judicious wording and economy of style. He wrote in a variety of literary genres. His short stories are held among the best of the 19th century, providing a popular following based on his roots. He wrote realistically of the terrible things he had seen in the war in such stories as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Boarded Window," "Killed at Resaca," and "Chickamauga."
Ambrose Bierce was an American journalist and short story writer. But during his lifetime, Bierce was better known as a journalist than as a fiction writer. His most popular stories were written between 1888 and 1891. His works often highlight the inscrutability of the universe and the absurdity of death and are credited with having pioneered the psychological horror story. Robert Chambers, author of The King in Yellow and the mythology behind the TV show True Detective, has borrowed elements from the work of Bierce. Specifically, the names Carcosa and Hastur from the story "An Inhabitant of Carcosa," one of the stories included in the First Edition of Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. This book contains all the stories of the First Edition of Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (including "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and the other stories omitted in later editions), plus the additional stories of In the Midst of Life, Volume II of The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce.
The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays is a classic American essay collection by the great American author and humorist, Ambrose Bierce. The essays cover a wide range of subjects, embracing among other things government, dreams, writers of dialect, and dogs, and always the author's point of view is fresh, original and non-Philistine. Whether one cares to agree with him or not, one will find vast entertainment in his wit that illuminates with lightning flashes all he touches. Other qualities I forbear allusion to, having already encroached too much upon the time of the reader.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) fue un escritor, periodista y editorialista estadounidense. Su estilo l cido y vehemente le ha permitido conservar la popularidad un siglo despu s de su muerte, mientras que muchos de sus contempor neos han pasado al olvido. Ese mismo estilo c ustico hizo que un cr tico le apodara "El amargo Bierce." En Londres escribi sus primeras narraciones cortas, aparecidas en revistas y recopiladas m s tarde en tres tomos, le crearon fama de humorista c ustico y mordaz. Su estilo se caracteriza por el constante uso de la iron a. Mis ntropo, expres su pesimismo en cuentos y relatos cortos que no se hacen excesivas ilusiones sobre la bondad esencial del hombre y la mujer. Tambi n compuso F bulas fant sticas y un Esopo enmendado, cr ticas corrosivas de la corrupci n pol tica estadounidense. De regreso a San Francisco se convirti en el rbitro de los c rculos pol ticos y literarios. Hizo gala de su humor macabro en The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (1892) y de ingenio sat rico en su libro de versos Shapes of Clay (1903). Se le considera heredero literario directo de sus compatriotas Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne y Herman Melville. Cuentista de primer orden, le debemos algunos de los mejores relatos macabros de la historia de la literatura: La muerte de Halpin Frayser, La cosa maldita, Un suceso en el puente sobre el r o Owl, Un habitante de Carcosa, Un terror sagrado, La ventana tapiada, etc. Bierce es el escritor que gran parte de la cr tica sit a al lado de Poe, Lovecraft y Maupassant en el pante n de ilustres cultivadores del g nero terror fico. A trav s de sus contundentes filigranas se evidenci como maestro absoluto en la recreaci n de tensas atm sferas desasosegantes en medio de las cuales detona repentinamente un horror f sico, absorbente y feroz. Su muerte, pese a muchos datos fidedignos, es a n un misterio. Se sabe que en octubre de 1913, Bierce parti de Washington D. C. para recorrer los antiguos campos de batalla de la Guerra Civil. En diciembre de ese mismo a o cruz a M xico por El Paso, que por entonces estaba en desarrollo. En Ciudad Ju rez se uni al ej rcito de Pancho Villa como observador, llegando hasta Chihuahua, donde su rastro se desvanece. La ltima acci n registrada de Bierce fue de una carta que escribi a un amigo, fechada el 26 de diciembre. Este suceso es una de las desapariciones m s famosas de la historia de la literatura; incluso, H. P. Lovecraft se refiere a ella en su novela "El que acecha en el umbral" (1945), y aunque sobre dicha desaparici n se han lanzado infinidad de teor as, el misterio a n permanece.
