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    In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
    In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
    In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
    Ebook295 pages4 hours

    In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians

    By Ambrose Bierce

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    Tales of Soldiers and Civilians is a collection of short stories written by Ambrose Bierce. Published in 1891, the 26 stories detail the lives of soldiers and civilians during the American Civil War. His famous story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is included in this collection.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publisheranboco
    Release dateSep 5, 2016
    ISBN9783736413825
    Author

    Ambrose Bierce

    Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was an American novelist and short story writer. Born in Meigs County, Ohio, Bierce was raised Indiana in a poor family who treasured literature and extolled the value of education. Despite this, he left school at 15 to work as a printer’s apprentice, otherwise known as a “devil”, for the Northern Indianan, an abolitionist newspaper. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union infantry and was present at some of the conflict’s most harrowing events, including the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. During the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in 1864, Bierce—by then a lieutenant—suffered a serious brain injury and was discharged the following year. After a brief re-enlistment, he resigned from the Army and settled in San Francisco, where he worked for years as a newspaper editor and crime reporter. In addition to his career in journalism, Bierce wrote a series of realist stories including “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga,” which depict the brutalities of warfare while emphasizing the psychological implications of violence. In 1906, he published The Devil’s Dictionary, a satirical dictionary compiled from numerous installments written over several decades for newspapers and magazines. In 1913, he accompanied Pancho Villa’s army as an observer of the Mexican Revolution and disappeared without a trace at the age of 71.

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      On Apr 7, 1951 I said: "Read some Ambrose Bierce stories. They are really good. I am glad I found the book. The first one I read 'That Damned Thing' which was a good introduction. Next 'A Horseman in theSky'--a Union sentry shoots his father's horse rather than his Confederate father. Next ' An Occurence at Owl Bridge': a masterpiece and something I wish I had written. It is just the sort of thing I'd write if I could. Tells a story of a guy's thoughts between falling and dying while being hanged. Next: 'Chichamanga' a real horrible thing--a little 6 year old boy sees these guys at dusk after a battle: 'The man . . .turned upon him a face that lacked a lower jaw--from the upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone.' But all this doesn't bother the little brat till he finds his mother: 'the white face turned upward . . the long dark hair in tangle and full of clotted blood. The greater part of the forehead . . . torn away. from the jagged hole the brain protruded, overflowing the temple, a frothy mass of gray, crowned with clusters of crimson bubbles . . .' Poe was never like this. Next: 'A Son of the Gods' is in the present tense, the only other story I remember reading in present tense was of my own composition. Next: 'One of the Missing' It, too was my sort of story. A guy was staring down a rifle barrel and couldn't move. What a story! What an author is Ambrose Bierce!" On Apr 9 I said: "Just read a terrific Bierce story 'The Coup de Grace' Tells of aguy who finds his best friend mortally and horribly wounded on a deserted battlefield. Seeing that he seeks death, he stabs him and just then his friend's brother and his own mortal enemy and two stretcherbearers walk up: Wow! What a storyteller! Simple, effective, direct. It is all essential to his story. No surplus wordage. A devastating writer" On Apr 16 I said: "Read two great Bierce stories today. 'George Thurston' told of a scared officer who stabbed himself so the sword came out between his shoulder blades. 'The Mocking Bird' told beautifully and sadly the story of a guy who shot his twin brother. His stuff is pure poetry: 'the shrilling bird upon the bough overhead stilled her song and, flushed with sunset's crimson glory, glided silently away through the solemn spaces of the wood. At rollcall that evening in the Federal camp the name William Graycock brought no response, nor ever again thereafter.' With pure simple beauty." On Apr 20: "Read a terrific Bierce story: 'A Watcher by the Deade': A character says: 'if a man were locked up all night with a corpse--alone--in a dark room--of a vacant house--with no bed covers to pull over his head--and lived through it without going altogether mad, he might justly boast himself not of woman born.' The story goes on from there."

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    In the Midst of Life - Ambrose Bierce

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