From Publishers Weekly
Best remembered today for his masterpiece of irony, The Devil's Dictionary, the versatile Bierce was a war correspondent, a political essayist, author of three volumes of popular satirical verse and, at times, a brilliant craftsman of the short story. Indeed, there were few areas of literature Bierce did not explore fully before he disappeared into the Mexican revolution in 1913 at the age of 71, never to be seen again. Autobiography, however, was one of them. Joshi and Schultz seek successfully to fill this void by supplementing Bierce's brief "Bits of Autobiography" with rich slices of first-person reportage from throughout his published and unpublished writings. These slices include Bierce's eyewitness accounts of Shiloh and other great battles of the Civil War, along with previously lost autobiographical fragments from the pages of the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Journal and Cosmopolitan. Of particular value are excerpts of letters from the last nine years of Bierce's life that reveal him in several unlikely guises, among them mentor to the young Ezra Pound. Here we have Bierce as we've never had him before: writ large in his own words. His remarkable life could have no better narrator. (Sept.) FYI: Readers with weakening eyes may want to break out their glasses--the typeface is quite small.
Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Bierce (1842-1914) is known primarily as a Civil War journalist, political editorialist, and short-story writer. After serving in the Civil War, he became a columnist in San Francisco. His newspaper career took off with his infamous column, "Prattle," and the serial publication of The Devil's Dictionary. In 1887, he became the chief editorial writer for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, a position he later held at Cosmopolitan. Almost from the beginning, Bierce expressed his controversial opinions about war, politics, and religion with keen satiric wit. Some critics have labeled him venomous; others consider his contributions to American journalism invaluable. This book consists mostly of his writings, and they are not, as the editors point out, always strictly autobiographical. Still, it is possible to get a sense of the private man behind the social and political commentator who simply disappearedAperhaps in connection with the Mexican Civil WarAaround 1914.ARobert Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
