Gathered from Californian journals and first published in London under the pen name Dod Grile, these pieces offer what Bierce calls a cold collation of diabolisms. Comic fictions, mock obituaries, tales such as the Strong Young Man of Colusa, sardonic maxims on country life and assorted outrages against sentiment are cast, as he puts it, in the American language.
Early, savage Bierce, the young satirist already at work on the voice of The Devil’s Dictionary. Download the free EPUB.