Ambrose Bierce's supernatural stories and literary legacy

Ambrose Bierce

Facts about Bierce's life and work

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842- 1914?) was an American satirist, critic, poet, short story (horror) writer, editor, and journalist.

His clear style and lack of sentimentality have kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have become obscure. Because of his dark, sardonic views and vehemence as a critic, he received the nickname "Bitter Bierce." This aspect didn't estrange him from the public, but built him a spectacular career as a writer, which influenced other writers as well.

His true love was satire, which he applied it in any form, whether ghost story or fable, newspaper column or lyrical lambaste, fantasy or pseudo-lexicography. His writings focused on the pathological images of horror first applied by Edgar Poe.

The work which consecrated Bierce as a famous writer

Ambrose Bierce wrote a total of ninety-three short stories (based on published material at the time of this writing) of which fifty-three can be added to the supernatural category. The short stories present different appearances of the world beyond the ordinary, enveloped in mystery caught in the aria of the fantastic occurrences, ranging from the power of survival on earth after death.

Another twenty-two are outright satires, what Ernest J. Hopkins has classified as "Tall Tales."

The remaining eighteen are mainly Civil War stories. They are realistic, projecting objective images. The Civil War stories consecrated Bierce as academic writer.

II The non-supernatural stories

The non-supernatural stories are a group of stories which describe scenes of the Civil War. "The Mocking Bird" and "The Story of a Conscience," are tow of them. These are the only ones which depict Bierce in another light -close to the real world, human and almost sympathetic. Another, "The Major's Tale," is characterized by humor. Two final stories, "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and "Haita the Shepherd," are Bierce's only fantasies and contain elements later assumed by developers as the so-called Cthulhu Mythos.

III The Devil's Dictionary

Another work considered Bierce master piece is the well-known "Devil's Dictionary." "The Devil's Dictionary" is one of the greatest works of satire of the 19th century. The words are explained from a certain point-of-view, which focuses on hypocrisy and political double -talk. From the definition given by Bierce himself about it, a dictionary can be seen as "A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work."

Bierce was esteemed a master of "pure" English by his contemporaries. Everything written by him was notable for its judicious wording and economy of style. He used with mastery a variety of literary genres, and he also published several volumes of poetry and verse. His "Fantastic Fables" anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that turned into a genre in the 20th century.

3. Bierce inspired by his predecessors who helped him consolidate his status as a writer

The critics observe in Ambrose Bierce's short fiction an ingenious art scattered with subtle elements of the unnatural world and with a great preference for detail (as the Balzacian style) E.J. Hopkins has noticed that many of his horror tales are less than 3000 words in length; several are less than 1000. Bierce himself recommended that, in successful writing, each word should do the work of four. Such measures are more appropriated for a journalist, and Bierce knew better how to apply them because he was also engaged in this work.

The plot plays a major role in every story, in the prejudice of the mood, which doesn't receive much attention (except in the two fantasies). Concerning the macabre, in Bierce writing, there are many aspects also found in the work of other masters of this esthetic gender such as Poe, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. Lovecraft, in his celebrated essay Supernatural Horror in Literature and in several of his published letters, favors the plot and sustains that it is more important than the mood. On the other hand Poe is famous for the detailed studies of feelings and moods (e.g., "The Fall of the House of Usher"). These are representative and obligatory elements encountered in his writings. Smith, the least known of the writers here named accentuates the descriptions and succeeds in creating terrifying and alien moods (e.g., "Xeethra").

Bierce was often compared with Poe and it has been said that he "followed Poe in most of his stories" but was "less literary and more observant." This is true considering the complexity of Poe's sentence structures compared to the great detail so succinctly presented in such Bierce pieces as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." H.L. Mencken, one of Bierce's most successful and well-known understudies, wrote that Bierce's "own style was extraordinarily tight and unresilient, and his fear of rhetoric often took all the life out of his works."

4. Bierce's work -influenced and defined the work of contemporary writers

Bierce managed to create an outstanding style of his writing. For this matter he received a place in the history of the weird tale being consecrated for this gender. As Bleiler declared, he took Poe's example in transporting Gothic and Victorian ghost stories to the mind area, discovering in the human psyche "the ultimate source of horror." His contributions were considerable, influencing different writers as Blackwood, Arthur Machen, M.R. James, W.C. Morrow, Robert W. Chambers, Lord Dunsany, and Lovecraft; and from these writers the row continued until it got to the modern writers of the weird as Carl Jacobi, Charles Beaumont, Rod Serling, among many others. In spite of that his total influence can hardly be counted because in his era the horror tale was developing very fast, but was still at the beginning. Nowadays the imagination doesn't have limits. The human mind can contrive spectacular and shocking thinks that have the great power to impress the public. But Bierce contribution to literature has its importance, as well as his satanic skill.

A http: The horror writer H.P. Lovecraft later incorporated these into his own work, as did other authors who later extended Lovecraft's characters and themes, collectively creating the Cthulhu Mythos.

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Bierce stories represented a great source of inspiration for the movie industry "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was preferred as the main subject. A silent film version was made in the 1920s. A French version called "La Riviera du Hibou," directed by Robert Enrico, was released in 1962. This is a black and white film, faithfully recounting the original narrative using voice-over. Another version, directed by Brian James Egan, was released in 2005. The 1962 film was also used for an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone: " An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." A copy of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" appeared in the ABC television series Lost (" The Long Con," airdate February 8, 2006).

Bierce's disappearance and his contacts with Mexico influenced the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes to write "Gringo Viejo" (The Old Gringo). After Fuentes novel, later was made a film, " Old Gringo," with Gregory Peck in the title role.

Bierce also joined the characters of the movie From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (set in 1913, a prequel to the original From Dusk Till Dawn). Bierce was an inspiring figure for the producer of the movie. In the film he is first attacked by bandits, and then trapped in a bar filled with vampires determined to kill all the humans inside. This clearly fictional adventure also portrayed Bierce as an alcoholic. In that film Ambrose Bierce was played by Michael Parks.

Bierce appears as a character in Robert A. Heinlein's uses Ambrose Bierce as a character for his novella " Lost Legacy," (published in the short story collection Assignment in Eternity). In the story, Bierce has advanced mental powers.

A http: The story purpose is to present Bierce's manuscript written in his last journey in Mexico, but the circumstances of his death remain mysterious too.

Bierce is depicted as a detective in series of mystery novels by Oakley Hall, including Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades and Ambrose Bierce and the Death of Kings.

Bierce passes the movie industry and enters the music area, being mentioned in the song 'The Fall of Ambrose Bierce', by ' The Stiletto Formal'.

Ambrose Bierce has a special place in the literary corner, not only because his talent and work brought him the deserved fame but also because his work inspirited other authors. They borrowed pieces of Bierce's style and elements and carried them so far, reaching our contemporary literature. Therefore his work will be continued and his name well preserved.