Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
Autor von Des Teufels Wörterbuch
Über den Autor
Ambrose Bierce was a brilliant, bitter, and cynical journalist. He is also the author of several collections of ironic epigrams and at least one powerful story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Bierce was born in Ohio, where he had an unhappy childhood. He served in the Union army during the mehr anzeigen Civil War. Following the war, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a columnist for the newspaper the Examiner, for which he wrote a number of satirical sketches. Bierce wrote a number of horror stories, some poetry, and countless essays. He is best known, however, for The Cynic's Word Book (1906), retitled The Devil's Dictionary in 1911, a collection of such cynical definitions as "Marriage: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two." Bierce's own marriage ended in divorce, and his life ended mysteriously. In 1913, he went to Mexico and vanished, presumably killed in the Mexican revolution. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen
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Ambrose Bierce's Write It Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for… (2009) 221 Exemplare
The Devil's Dictionaries: The Best of the Devil's Dictionary and the American Heretic's Dictionary (2000) 42 Exemplare
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 8: Negligible Tales, On with the Dance, Epigrams (1909) 25 Exemplare
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A Jug of Syrup — Autor — 5 Exemplare
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Getagged
Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett
- Andere Namen
- Grile, Dod
Bierce, Bitter
Herman, William
Bowers, Mrs. J. Milton - Geburtstag
- 1842-06-24
- Todestag
- 1914
- Begräbnisort
- unbekannt
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- USA
- Geburtsort
- Horse Cave Creek, Meigs County, Ohio, USA
- Sterbeort
- Chihuahua, Mexiko
- Todesursache
- unbekannt
- Wohnorte
- San Francisco, Kalifornien, USA
Warsaw, Indiana, USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Chihuahua, Mexico - Ausbildung
- Autodidakt
- Berufe
- Journalist
poet
essayist
critic
editor
columnist (Zeige alle 12)
reporter
soldier
topographical engineer
drummer boy
mining foreman
printer's apprentice - Organisationen
- 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army
San Francisco Examiner
Hearst Newspapers
Bohemian Club
Army-Navy Club
Northern Indianan (Zeige alle 11)
U.S. Sub-Treasury
San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser
U.S. Mint
New York American
Wasp - Kurzbiographie
- Disappeared in Mexico in 1914
Mitglieder
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THE DEEP ONES: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce in The Weird Tradition (Mittwoch 7:20pm)
The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter by Richard Voss – LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB 1967 in George Macy devotees (August 2023)
THE DEEP ONES: "The Death of Halpin Frayser" by Ambrose Bierce in The Weird Tradition (August 2022)
THE DEEP ONES: "Beyond the Wall" by Ambrose Bierce in The Weird Tradition (Juli 2015)
I just bought The Collected Writings of Ambrose Bierce in Thing(amabrarian)s That Go Bump in the Night (Januar 2012)
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... von den Freunden lächerlich gemacht zu werden." (Bierce)
Wer derartige Feststellungen liebt, liegt mit diesem Buch in der bitterbösen Zwölf goldrichtig. Eile ist für Bierce die Arbeitsweise der Stümper und die Eifersucht definiert er so: "Übertrieben besorgt über die Erhaltung dessen, was man nur dann verlieren kann, wenn es des Aufbewahrens sowieso nicht wert ist." Die Wahrheit springt bei ihm aus allen Sätzen und auch dem Egoismus fühlt er sich ergeben: "Eine Person von schlechtem Geschmack, die mehr an sich selbst als an mir interessiert ist."
Dr. Michael Siefener, der (hervorragende) Übersetzer und Jurist ist in diesem Thema bestens zu Hause, hat er doch seine Promotion über "Hexerei im Spiegel der Rechtstheorie" geschrieben, wobei die Hexerei der Bierce'schen Sätze in ihrem bedingungslos gemeinen, hinterhältigen Offenlegen von Wahrheiten liegt. Jeder von uns hat schon so gedacht, alles Handeln spielt sich im Feld negativer und positiver Schlüsse ab, die Frage ist immer, die richtige Balance zu finden. Man hat das Gefühl, dass z.B. Karl Kraus ein Übermaß dieser Gedanken getrunken hat, ja richtig seitenlastig davon war.
Einfach köstlich dies: "Fotografie, die: Ein Bild, das von der Sonne gemalt wurde, ohne dass sie eine Ausbildung in dieser Kunst genossen hätte. Sie ist ein wenig besser als das Werk eines Apachen, aber nicht ganz so gut wie das eines Cheyenne." Oder "Folterbank, die: Ein argumentatives Hilfsmittel, das früher häufig benutzt wurde, die Anhänger eines falschen Glaubens zur Annahme der lebendigen Wahrheit zu überreden." Nicht zitieren möchte ich "Frau, die: Ein Tier, das..." (S.47). Gemein, bitterböse, Bierce!!
Privat war Bierce problembeladen. Ein Menschenfeind ('the wickedest man of San Francisco'), und doch immer hilfsbereit. Das Ende: schweres Asthma, Tod beider Söhne, eine gescheiterte Ehe und Alkoholprobleme. Sein Verschwinden und Ableben ist in den Wirren der Mexikanischen Revolution ungeklärt, er geht dort 1913/14 spurlos hinweg. Eine seiner frühen Kurzgeschichten trägt den Titel "Mysterious Disappearances", vorausschauend mysteriös negativ also.
Bierce verachtet das Gerede der Politiker und definiert sie so: "Ein Aal im Grundschlamm, auf dem sich das Gebäude der organisierten Gesellschaft erhebt. Wenn er sich windet, hält er das Zittern seines eigenen Schwanzes irrtümlicherweise für das Erdbeben des ganzen Gebäudes." Und Politik ist für ihn "Ein Interessenskampf, der sich als Wettstreit der Prinzipien maskiert. Die Abwicklung öffentlicher Angelegenheiten zum privaten Nachteil."
Überraschend wahre, unvergleichlich zeitlose Gedankensprünge in das Heute, Bierce liest sich nicht wie einer aus dem 19. Jahrhundert. Wenig hat sich bis heute geändert und sein Grab hat Bierce so umschrieben: "Ein Ort, an dem der Verstorbene die Ankunft des Medizinstudenten erwartet." Auch den Kapitalismus bzw. das moderne Bankenwesen hat er bedacht: "Schulden, die: Ein genialer Ersatz für Kette und Peitsche des Sklaventreibers."
Bierce ist witziger, klarer und einprägsamer als z.B. Karl Kraus, ein erheiternder Zyniker, dessen Sch(l)üsse meist kein "l wie lapidar" enthielten, also echte Schüsse ins Mark waren.
22. April 2011… (mehr)