Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

[SistaSara]

Ambrose Bierce

Writer / Missing Person

Ambrose Gwinett Bierce was one of the great journalists and short story writers of the 19th century American west. A veteran of the Civil War, he turned to journalism in 1868, joining the staff of the San Francisco News-Letter as a reporter and columnist. Bierce established his reputation with the novels A Fiend's Delight (1872) and Cobwebs From an Empty Skull (1875) and became one of the most famous writers in the country. From 1887 to 1908 he worked off and on for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, and published collections of stories in In the Midst of Life (1891) and Can Such Things Be? (1893). His most famous work is a collection of satiric definitions, The Devil's Dictionary (first published as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906). In 1913 he set out for Mexico and was never seen again. Rumors of his fate include a suicide in the Grand Canyon, getting shot by Pancho Villa and death by pneumonia.

[GrinReaper]

Maybe it could be all three?
He has pneumonia. He's getting ready to jump off a cliff into the Grand Canyon. But just before he can he gets shot by Pancho Villa!

[Kathyf]

Great story nevr heard of him Thanks,

[Serendipity09]

In October 1913 the septuagenarian Bierce departed Washington, D.C., for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. By December he had proceeded on through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico, which was in the throes of revolution. In Ciudad Juárez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer, and in that role participated in the battle of Tierra Blanca.
Bierce is known to have accompanied Villa's army as far as Chihuahua, Chihuahua. After a last letter to a close friend, sent from there December 26, 1913, he vanished without a trace, becoming one of the most famous disappearances in American literary history. Several writers have subscribed to the speculation that he actually headed north to the Grand Canyon, found a remote spot there and shot himself, though no shred of actual evidence exists to support this view. All investigations into his fate have proved fruitless, and despite an abundance of theories his end remains shrouded in mystery. The date of his death is generally cited as "1914?".
In one of his last letters, Bierce wrote the following to his niece, Lora:
"Good-bye â?? if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico â?? ah, that is euthanasia!"