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Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914?)

He was born in Horse Cave Creek, Ohio, from a strictly religious family.
He left his home at the age of sixteen for starting off his career as a printer's devil at the Northen Indianian, but forfeited this position because he was falsely accused of stealing money.
His family insisted that he should enroll in the Kentucky Military Institute; thus, the knowledge of military strategy supported him in the Civil War where he had been fighting since 1861.
In 1866 he moved to California where he collaborated with newspapers such as News Letter, Californian, the Atla California, the Golden Era, the weekly News-Letter and California Advertiser.
In 1872 he moved to England for four years; later on, he went back to America to write for the San Francisco Examiner. The new owner of this newspaper was William Randolph Hearst, who had an eye for talented journalists like Bierce.
The fame and reputation of Bierce grew and in the years 1887-1906, the columns of Bierce were known as The Prattler. In 1897 he went to Washington to work for another newspaper owned by Hearst.
He often wrote in defense of Jews, Negroes and Chineses.
His personal life was a failure: he divorced in 1904; his elder son committed suicide at the age of sixteen; his youngest son died of alcoholism at the age of thirty.
In 1914 he disappeared in Mexico, where a civil war was breaking out and since then his destiny remains unknown. His best known works are The Devil's Dictionary (New York: Sagamore Press, 1957) and Tales of Soldiers & Civilians (1891) [also known as In the Midst of Life (New York: Heritage, 1943)].


\'infidel\'이란 말은, 뉴욕에선 기독교를 믿지 않는 사람; 콘스탄티노플에선 기독교를 믿는 사람을 뜻한다
\'통역자\'-각기 상이한 언어를 사용하는 두 사람에게, 상대방이 그렇게 말을 했다면 통역자에게 유리하게 되었을 것을, 계속 반복함으로써 각자를 이해 시키는 능력을 가진 사람이다
남자 주인과 여자 주인 그리고 두 노예, 그러나 본질적으로 둘로 구성된 공동체
냉소인: 그의 잘못된 시력이 사물을 있는 그대로 볼뿐, 그렇게 되어져야 한다고 보지 않는 \'악당\'
바로미터. 날씨를 예측할 수 있는 독창적인 기기
선거인:타인이 선택한 사람들에게 투표하는 성스러운 특권을 누리는 사람
역사란: 지배자들, 그 대부분이 악당들 그리고 군인들, 그 대부분이 바보들인 그들이 야기시킨, 그 대부분이 중요치 않은 사건들에 대한 거짓된 설명이다
전쟁은 하나님이 미국인들에게 지리학을 가르치는 한 방법이다.
정치: 원칙의 경쟁을 가장한 이해관계의 투쟁.