Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of June 24th
___________________________________________________________________________
It is the 175th day of the year, leaving 190 days remaining in 2022.
On this date in 1842, the early American writer Ambrose Bierce was born.
He began writing as a newspaper columnist after the Civil War, when he moved from Indiana to San Francisco. He wrote for several newspapers, sometimes as a reporter on crime, other times writing about corruption in politics, religion, and literature.
But on the side, he wrote books, short stories, and tales of horror. Among his better known works is The Devil's Dictionary, which began as part of his newspaper work and later was published as The Cynic's Word Book. That earlier title describes its content. For instance, here is one entry:
Conservative: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from a Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
His short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, is one of the most read of its genre, as it often appears in literature anthologies, particularly those meant for college or high school students. The story, its themes, and its numerous plot devices have been explored in dozens of other works. None other than Kurt Vonnegut called it "a flawless example of American genius."
Spoiler alert for the few who haven't read it: It tells the tale of a man being hanged over a river for treason during the Civil War. Except the rope breaks; he escapes by swimming away and walking some 30 miles back to his plantation and his wife. Except when he reaches out to her, he feels a sharp pain in the back of his neck. The last scene is his swinging by a rope under the Owl Creek Bridge.
In 1913, Bierce disappeared while travelling in Mexico for information on its ongoing revolution. His death remains a mystery.
No comments:
Post a Comment