Ambrose Bierce

Herbie Butterfield (University of Essex)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Ambrose Bierce was born, the tenth of thirteen children, on June 24, 1842, in the rural settlement of Horse Cave Creek, Ohio, whence four years later the family moved further west to the adjoining state of Indiana. His father was a farmer with no gift for agriculture but with a love of literature, so that though the living was hard and mean, and the household culture, under the stern religious discipline of a dominant mother, backwoods Calvinist, it was also thoroughly literate, even bookish. On leaving school at the age of fifteen Bierce went first to work as a printer's apprentice on an antislavery newspaper and then in 1859, encouraged by his uncle, the self-styled General Lucius Bierce, he enrolled at Kentucky Military Institute to study draftsmanship, surveying, and engineering. This…

2198 words

Citation: Butterfield, Herbie. "Ambrose Bierce". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 July 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=409, accessed 19 March 2024.]

409 Ambrose Bierce 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.