Born on this day in Meigs County, Ohio, journalist Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842–1914) was the 10th of 13 children. He is best known for writing The Devil's Dictionary (1906), a collection of satirical and perceptive aphorisms such as:

“Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage.”

“Kill v.t.: To create a vacancy without nominating a successor.”

“Kiss, n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for ‘bliss.’”

His cynical humor and powerful short stories, born from his experiences as a Union officer in the Civil War, have earned comparisons to a “Northern Mark Twain.”

Of Bierce’s war tale, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1890), writer Stephen Crane once said, “Nothing better exists—the story has everything.”

In 1887, Bierce joined William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner as a columnist. Known for his macabre humor and lively wordplay, he kept a skull on his desk and claimed it belonged to a rival critic.

Nicknamed “Bitter Bierce,” “the devil’s lexicographer,” and “Acid Pen,” he once observed, “Death is not the end. There remains litigation over the estate.”

Bierce’s blade was wit, but his aim was truth. Beneath the satire lived a raw awareness of life’s absurdity and ache. His words, darkly lit, dared us to look closer—at the world, at ourselves—and not flinch.