| Issue No.2, Vol.1

 

Ambrose Bierce: Examining his Legacy to the Throne of Poe

by Michael Lohr

Not to speak ill of the dead but legend has it that Ambrose Bierce (b. 1842, d. 1914?) was allegedly a world class devil’s advocate. He sported the nickname “Bitter Bierce” and was known to throw tantrums of notorious proportions. Maybe so, maybe not, but from an historical perspective one thing is sure he was a talented, able potential heir-apparent to the dark throne of Edgar Allan Poe.

 

Bierce was an accomplished satirist, critic, poet, writer, editor and journalist. But he also had reputation as a cantankerous, dodgy sod. Blame it on his Civil War head wound received while fighting with the Ninth Regiment Indiana Volunteers in the bloody (what Civil War wasn’t) Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. But the guy had a certain élan about him. He looked like a more civilized Mark Twain, yet had the slicing tongue of scorn that even Poe lacked. It was said that writers of the day feared him, for a single review by Bierce could “make or break” a writer’s career. It was rumored that more than one poet committed suicide after reading a negative review by Bierce. And people think overpaid American Idol dildo Simon Cowell is a difficult persona to deal with. Bierce could keep a grudge to. Socialist poet Jack London and Bierce fiercely feuded for years over such trivial matters a shared friend’s opinion of each writer’s talent and the proper drink for educated gentlemen to order in public.

 

After the war he found himself in San Francisco. He worked for many newspapers and periodicals of the day including the San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco News Letter, The Argonaut and The Wasp. In 1899 he moved to Washington, DC and worked as a journalist while there. One poet that was profoundly influenced by Bierce was Ezra Pound. Bierce was uncompromisingly brutal on the young poet until the day when Pound sent him the poem “The Ballad of the Goodly Fere.” Bierce’s negative criticisms quickly turned into unbridled praise.

 

Bierce’s poetry could be rather unorthodox at times. Epigrammatic in style, his poems were biting and cut to the chase, so-to-speak. If he lived in our times, he would have had a field day with all the corruption and pathetic idiocy teeming within today’s rotting bowl of political stew.

 

The following parody of the old patriotic song “My Country 'Tis of Thee” is a prime example of his sardonic wit.

 

“My country 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of felony,
Of thee I sing--
Land where my fathers fried
Young witches and applied
Whips to the Quaker's hide
And made him spring.”

 

Being a war veteran he found it easy to express himself clearly and realistically about tragedy and untimely death. Of his many ghost and war short stories “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” and “Killed at Resaca” best exemplify his darker visions. Arguably his most famous work The Devil’s Dictionary, is a fantastic example of the grotesque and perverse.

 

Below is an excerpt from one of Bierce’s most famous works, The Devil’s Dictionary. His drollness and satirical approach are clearly evident.

 

“ABDOMEN, n.

      The temple of the god Stomach, in whose worship, with sacrificial rights, all true men engage. From women this ancient faith commands but a stammering assent. They sometimes minister at the altar in a half-hearted and ineffective way, but true reverence for the one deity that men really adore they know not. If woman had a free hand in the world's marketing the race would become graminivorous.”

 

From a popular culture perspective, Ambrose Bierce is well, a popular character. The caricature of Bierce has appeared in one form or another in the ABC television show Lost, The Twilight Zone, From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter and even in the DC Comics mini series, Lost Planet, among others. In 1956, Robert Bloch’s short story, “I Like Blondes” had an Ambrose Bierce character who was the host body for an alien species. Science Fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein’s novella Lost Legacy was about Bierce. Writers of the caliber of Robert W. Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft borrowed from Bierce and Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes wrote Gringo Viejo (The Old Gringo) which later became a movie starring Gregory Peck.

 

Maybe the most intriguing aspect of Ambrose Bierce’s life was his death. In October 1913, Bierce crossed the Texas/Mexico border at El Paso and joined the rebel army of Pancho Villa near the city of Ciudad Juarez. Remember this was during the Mexican Revolution when Villa’s forces were fighting the Federal Army of Mexico. Call him brave, a flaming nutbag or just plain obtuse, but he was seventy-one years old when he decided to go on this adventure. He sent a letter dated December 26, 1913 to a close friend stating that things were getting a bit difficult with the Federalés. That was the last communiqué anyone received from him. He disappeared into the dust of history. Rumor has it that he was accused by the Mexican government of being a spy and was executed via firing squad in early 1914. Another rumor states that Bierce accompanied British explorer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges on his quest for the ancient Olmec/Mayan artifact called the Skull of Doom and was killed during the expedition.

 

One of the oddest theories to be put forth on Ambrose Bierce’s death was by the legendary paranormal investigator Charles Fort. Fort said that because Bierce vanished at the same time as Ambrose Small, the Toronto-based theatre magnate, that it was definitive proof that evil supernatural forces were collecting Ambroses.

 

In my opinion Ambrose Bierce was indeed a talented journalist and editor who had the potential to be the heir apparent to Edgar Allan Poe, but did not live up to the legacy. H. P. Lovecraft however, was not only the heir apparent, but the true successor to Poe’s Throne.

 

If you are so persuaded, check out the Ambrose Bierce Appreciation Society. 

 

<<Serial Spiders

========================

 

Michael Lohr is a professional, international journalist, writer and poet. His work has appeared in such diverse magazines as Rolling Stone, Esquire and The Economist, to name a few. He also happens to fancy genre fiction and poetry in particular horror, science fiction and adventure.