Sixteen dark and vivid tales by great satirist: "A Horseman in the Sky," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "Chicakamauga," "A Son of the Gods," "What I Saw of Shiloh," more. Note.

"Chronicles the life and career of the acerbic author, from his youth, through his experiences during the Civil War, to his 1913 disappearance in revolution-torn Mexico"-OCLC

Enter a realm where the supernatural intertwines with the eerie and the uncanny. This gripping collection of short stories plunges readers into a world filled with ghostly apparitions, unexplainable phenomena, and the macabre. Can Such Things Be? contains one of Ambrose Bierce’s most famous works, the short story »The Death of Halpin Frayser«. Among the others in this collection are »The Damned Thing«, which explores the concept of an unseen entity preying on the living, and »The Moonlit Road«, recounting a tragic murder from three perspectives, including that of the victim from beyond the grave. AMBROSE BIERCE [1842-1914] was an American author, journalist, and war veteran. He was one of the most influential journalists in the United States in the late 19th century and alongside his success as a horror writer he was hailed as a pioneer of realism. Among his most famous works are The Devil's Dictionary and the short story »An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.«

Buried treasure. An abandoned cemetery. An inexperienced gravedigger. What could go wrong? When Jefferson Doman learns of a generous treasure left by an old friend, he locates the supposed burial site - the grave of a mysterious woman named Scarry. As he begins to dig, he uncovers much more than just treasure. Ambrose Bierce’s ‘A Holy Terror’ follows the misadventures of Jefferson Doman and the bizarre, disturbing, and inexplicable things that he encounters along the way. Sparing descriptions, a fast pace, and an irresistible mystery make this story unmissable for fans of Jack London, Mark Twain, and H.P Lovecraft. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was an American author and journalist. Affectionately known as ‘Bitter Bierce’, his horror and fiction stories are famed for their cynicism, obscurity, and sardonic view of human nature. Some of his most notable works include ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', ‘Tales of Soldiers and Civilians’ and ‘The Moonlit Road’.

One of the most interesting figures to emerge at the turn of the twentieth century was Ambrose Bierce, whose acerbic columns in the San Francisco Examiner spread his fame as America's most bitter cynic and misanthrope, and whose disappearance into Mexico surrounded his name with an aura of mystery. Although best known during his lifetime for his journalism and always critical of his own writing—"the magnificent intention mocked by the actual achievement"—Bierce's fiction endures, especially his short stories about the Civil War. Originally published in the 1890s and rediscovered in the 1920s, the Civil War stories are filled with unsparing descriptions of death and suffering, disillusionment and fatalism. They also show a concern for form and craftsmanship, a controlled irony, and an economy of detail that are distinctly modern. In this pioneering study of Bierce's stories, Stuart Woodruff examines the best and worst of Bierce's fiction with clarity and excellent critical sense, and he traces the causes of Bierce's success and failure as a writer, analyzing his inability to reconcile the extremes of temperament and belief that marked his life and give his stories their characteristic form. Among the pieces discussed: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Mocking-bird," "One of the Missing," "Chickamauga," "Ha•ta the Shepherd," "What I Saw at Shiloh," and excerpts from The Devil's Dictionary and Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.

»The Moonlit Road« is a short story by Ambrose Bierce, originally published in 1907. AMBROSE BIERCE [1842-1914] was an American author, journalist, and war veteran. He was one of the most influential journalists in the United States in the late 19th century and alongside his success as a horror writer he was hailed as a pioneer of realism. Among his most famous works are The Devil's Dictionary and the short story »An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.«

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (born June 24, 1842, assumed to have died sometime after December 26, 1913) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters," and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce." Despite his reputation as a searing critic, Bierce was known to encourage younger writers, including poet George Sterling and fiction writer W. C. Morrow. Bierce employed a distinctive style of writing, especially in his stories. His style often embraces an abrupt beginning, dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, impossible events and the theme of war. In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, he disappeared without a trace. 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." In addition to his ghost and war stories, he also published several volumes of poetry. His Fantastic Fables anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that became a more common genre in the 20th century. One of Bierce's most famous works is his much-quoted book, The Devil's Dictionary, originally an occasional newspaper item which was first published in book form in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book. It consists of satirical definitions of English words which lampoon cant and political double-talk. Under the entry "leonine," meaning a single line of poetry with an internal rhyming scheme, he included an apocryphal couplet written by the fictitious "Bella Peeler Silcox" (i.e. Ella Wheeler Wilcox) in which an internal rhyme is achieved in both lines only by mispronouncing the rhyming words: The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades. Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores! Bierce's twelve-volume Collected Works were published in 1909, the seventh volume of which consists solely of The Devil's Dictionary, the title Bierce himself preferred to The Cynic's Word Book.