 Short Stories: February 09, 2022 Issue [#11205] |
This week: Short Stories: An Occurence on Owl Creek Edited by: Gratitude Adore ♥  
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The writings of Ambrose Bierce are both unconventional and insightful from an author who lived his work, and drew from it to share with the reader.
Ambrose Bierce was born in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, OH on June 24, 1842, to Marcus Aurelius Bierce (1799–1876) and Laura Sherwood Bierce. He was one of 13 siblings, all who were named with names that began with “A”. Ambrose, though the 11th child, was the most famous of the group.
He also was entirely of English ancestry. His grandfather was a descendant of Willam Bradford, a Puritan separatist who later emigrated to the Mayflower Plymouth colony in 1620.
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Ambrose later left home at 15 to become a printer's devil at a small abolitionist newspaper, the Northern Indianan. He left the newspaper to attend Kentucky Military Institute until it burned down and later, enlisted in the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry.
He was part of the operations in West Virginia (1861), also an active at the battle of Philippi and received newspaper attention for his daring rescue of a gravely wounded comrade at the Battle of Rich Mountain.
Bierce fought at the battle of Shiloh, a terrifying experience which was the source for his short stories and a memoir titled, “What I Saw At Shiloh.”
Ambrose Bierce weaved much of his life experiences and retellings from others, into his short stories and other writings.
One of his famous short stories, “An Occurence on Owl Creek Bridge” was born from his experiences in the war and the horrors he'd witnessed while enlisted.
It was said that Ambrose Bierce was better known for his journalism than his short stories, but I can say that this is not as relevant today than his stories to the reader. He wrote many works but his short story fiction, well, he wrote 249 short stories, 846 fables and 300 little Johnny stories.
But we will look at the story that has brought us here this time, “An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge”, a stark and jarring retelling of a execution for breaking the law that wasn't a law but the insanity that war creates in others.
This story is “one of the most famous and most frequently anthologized stories in American literature” and was first published by the San Francisco Examiner in 1890 and later in Bierces's own book “Tales of Soldiers and Civilians” in 1891.
What is noted here in this story is Bierce abandoned strict linear partition for the internal mind of the protagonist stream of consciousness narrative mode, which set his writing apart from the rest.
While Ambrose Bierce serving in the Union Army in 1864 he suffered a traumatic brain injury during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, was released from active duty and later, returned to the Army mid 1866 with General Hazen to inspect outpost across the Great Plains.
Ambrose Bierce never fully recovered from his injuries and suffered from severe asthma throughout his life.
Ambrose Bierce was a writer unlike many whose work we have to read and inspect for our own. His life ended quite the way he lived it, with tension and uncertainty because he later decided to travel to Mexico during the Mexican Revolution and was never seen again.
There are so many writings from this author that I hope you will peruse and explore. Now, let us continue on our discourse on Ambrose Bierce!
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For this issue, we will provide links to some of the most interesting short stories this site has to offer.
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Maybe skydiving wasn't such a great idea after all...
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