Ambrose Bierce
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
Ambrose Bierce was a journalist and author whose works, including supernatural stories, made him one of the leading American writers of his time. Two of his books, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (a.k.a., In the Midst of Life, 1892) and Can Such Things Be? (1893) presented Gothic fiction in a Western setting, and expanded psychological horror fiction, a genre introduced by Edgar Allan Poe.
Bierce also wrote about the Civil War, based on his experiences with the Union Army. His journalism career started in San Francisco, as a contributing editor. He was a master of satire in many works: ghost fiction, newspaper columns, fantasy and most notably through his humorous compilation of pseudo-definitions, The Devil’s Dictionary. Bierce’s professional success endowed him with enough literary power to make or break the career of any aspiring writer of his time.
At the age of 71, Bierce traveled to Mexico where he was swept up in the Mexican Revolution, never to return. His disappearance marks one of the great mysteries of the literary world.