The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce

New York & Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1912. First edition, Number 22 of 250 copies, signed by the author "with compliments of AMBROSE BIERCE on ffep of Volume One. Frontispiece portrait in Volume One, by Campbell. Title-page designed by Frederick Polley. 12 vols. 8vo. PUBLISHER'S Deluxe full brown morocco, initials of Bierece "AB" in gilt on center of upper covers,gilt spines,all edges gilt, crimson moire silk endpapers and gilt dentelles., with initials of designer Frederick Polley "F P"in blind on upper cover. Fine. First edition, Number 22 of 250 copies, signed by the author "with compliments of AMBROSE BIERCE on ffep of Volume One. Frontispiece portrait in Volume One, by Campbell. Title-page designed by Frederick Polley. 12 vols. 8vo. Signed by the Author. After fighting in the Civil War and traveling exstensively throughout the Americas, Bierce found his fame in San Francisco when his brother publicly circulated copies of Bierce's bitterly provocative political cartoons. His reputation soon developed as a newspaper columnist, and in 1871 his first story, "The Haunted Valley" was published in "Overland Magazine". "Bierce was launched. His satirical paragraphs were quoted everywhere; he had found his niche. The San Francisco of the 70's and 80's was made for him, and he for it" (Kunitz and Haycraft, 64). When William Randolph Hearts took over the San Francisco Examiner, he immediately secured a position for Bierce, who then embarked upon the period of his greatest influence and fertility, "becoming the most provocative writing force on the West Coast, his frequent vitriol earning him the nickname 'Bitter Bierce'. His "Tales of Soldiers and Civilians", widely acclaimed for such short stories of the American Civil War as 'Chickamauga' and 'An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge' and his further collection' Can Such Things Be?', established him as a writer of sardonic humor, aptly contrasting images of horror and beauty, and a master of the unexpected ending" (Oxford Companion to 20th Century Literature, 65). BAL 1129; Starrett 24