ABSTRACT
Born on June 24, 1842, in Horse Cave Creek, Ohio, Bierce was the tenth of thirteen children born to a farm couple he described as "unwashed savages" and religious fanatics. Bierce's most interesting biographer, Richard O'Connor, notes that in 1861 Bierce "was only one of thousands of restless, disaffected American males who must have heard the echo of Fort Sumter's guns with a feeling almost of relief, of joyous anticipation". Both of Bierce's most famous and oft-anthologized short stories are set in the Civil War, and both have savagely ironic trick endings that dramatize war's absurdity. Separated by a typographical device he called "Telegraphical Dottings", Bierce discovered a convenient means to display his wit even as he denied any vestige of logical progression or linkage between items. Homesickness and Bierce's asthmatic condition prompted the family's return to San Francisco in 1875. Bierce could find no writing work so he took a position at the US Mint's assay office.
