IN DEFENSE OF AMBROSE BIERCE “Why should I care about Ambrose Bierce?” someone asked recently. The lady had never heard of Bierce, understandable when there is so much to learn and not enough time to learn it. It’s said Bierce was not famous in his lifetime or ours. A similar assertion was made by H.L. Mencken in 1927. Mencken was always given to hyperbole. Reckless assertions both. The number of books by Bierce published since his death (in 1914?) is staggering (being in the public domain helps): fiction, journalism, satire, poetry, memoir, graphic comics. He not only made the Library of America, but is universally recognized as an icon of the weird tale, along with Lovecraft and Poe. Bierce’s Civil War stories are masterly depictions of the conflict during which he served in the Union army. He beat O Henry to the twist ending. His work has been transformed into film, the visual arts, stage plays -- even opera (at least four). Bierce’s work is all over the Internet. Google shows some 3,800,000 entries. There are a handful of Bierce websites in addition to the Ambrose Bierce Site (although most have not been updated). He’s been featured prominently in magazines, several times on the covers. Not a day goes by that he isn’t quoted in print by someone somewhere. Frequently, the comparison to his older contemporary Mark Twain is made, but Bierce was not Twain and never pretended to be. Unlike Twain, Bierce was a life-long journalist, he never wrote a novel, and he never appeared on the lecture circuit. Bierce was Bierce, and there was no one like him. There are at least seven Bierce biographies (Norman Mailer has only had five) and many more scholarly studies. He has served as a character in several novels including The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes, and a detective series by Oakley Hall. Gregory Peck played Bierce in the film version of the Fuentes novel and Jane Fonda was Bierce’s love interest. Bierce even battled vampires in From Dusk to Dawn. Bierce was celebrated in his lifetime, first as the doyen of California literature, then as a bylined writer for the Hearst newspaper and magazine empire, notably for his muckraking against the railroads. Bierce is more prominent today than in his lifetime -- and not just because of his mysterious disappearance into Mexico. Visit the Ambrose Bierce Site to see for yourself: donswaim — and to join the new Bierce Facebook group click the request to join on the upper right of the screen. https://facebook/groups/ambrosebierce/
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 04:07:03 +0000
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