Archaic Printing Terms

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over!"

-Ambrose Bierce

 

They were the "shock jocks" of the era. The "bad boys of printing." Theirreverent media commentators of contemporary life, belief, and politics. Theywere the entertainment parents and leaders warned youth to avoid. Hated orloved they stirred anger and ideas. They upset the society of conservativeVictorian morals and politics. Nothing disturbs people more than to have theircollective ideas questioned.

Elbert Hubbard upset the East and Ambrose Bierce upset the West. Both wereprogressive in their contemporary politics, Unitarian in religious thought,and a thorn in the side for anyone in pompous authority. Hubbard wrote andpublished his own books. He spoke in public often. He formed a community ofworkers and followers and became better known. Bierce cared nothing forfollowers and what he wrote, others usually published. He formed noorganization to promote his works and perpetuate his ideals. The two men weresimilar in thought, but different in style. Hubbard is generally moreremembered than Bierce. But Bierce made a no less significant contribution.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (pronounced beers) had the wit of Twain, he lived thelife of Hemingway, and wrote tales of horror and suspense like Poe. His CivilWar stories are more realistic than Stephen Crane's, He was called "BitterBierce" for his cynical humor and macabre style. His life was unusual, but hisdeath was as mysterious as some of his writings.

He was born in 1842 in Meigs County, Ohio. At fifteen, he left home to becomea printer's devil. He was falsely accused of stealing and got sent to amilitary school in Kentucky. This training prepared him for duties in theUnion Army during the Civil War.

After the War and unsuccessful attempts to stay in the Army, he returned tonewspaper work and began writing. When the editor of the paper left undermysterious circumstances, he found himself an editor of little experience atthe age of 26. His new status allowed him to marry well, and his wealthyfather-in-law sent him on a "honeymoon" to England that lasted long enough forhis wife to have two sons in that country.

In England, he wrote and edited a magazine for the deposed Empress of France.His early columns were published in book form and were honored at a banquetwith Mark Twain's and Joaquin Miller's work. These three were the most famousand celebrated Western printer/writers of the day.

Returning to San Francisco, he found a ready market for his skills and heresumed editing and writing. A troubled marriage, a live-in mother-in-law,and a restless spirit sent him off to hunt for gold and to ride shotgun forWells Fargo in South Dakota. He returned to San Francisco to work for WilliamRandolph Hearst. His newspaper work pitted him against the railroad barons andwon him national fame.

The deaths of his two sons and his wife in a short period underscored hissour and sarcastic wit as well as his macabre stories. His motto becamefamous to his readers, "Nothing matters." Friends helped get his war storiespublished, along with collections of his newspaper columns. Many would onlyknow him as a writer of ghost stories, but most would remember his more than500 definitions from "The Cynics Word Book" better known as "The Devil'sDictionary."

He left the Hearst newspapers in 1908 and pursued a life of travel andadventure. The writer of mystery died a fitting death. He went to Mexico in1914 to write about Pancho Villa's revolution and disappeared.

Ambrose Bierce Quotes:

Copyright (C) 1998 by Frank Granger

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