The Devil's Dictionary
by Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce (Meigs County, Ohio, 1842 - Mexico 1914?). American satiric writer. Bierce wrote a large number of short stories and articles for several San Francisco magazines. It has been said that he produced at least three million words.

The Devil's Dictionary collects a column published in the Wasp magazine between 1881 and 1887. Bierce tried some other titles before: Comic Dictionary, Idiot's Unabridged Dictionary and Webster's Improved Dictionary.

A sample quote from the Devil's Dictionary:

DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.

• Ambrose Bierce's Sardonic Preface to the Devil's Dictionary
• The full text of the Devil's Dictionary (compressed)

The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

The Devil's Dictionaries: The Best of The Devil's Dictionary and the American Heretic's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce and Chaz Bufe

The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce

The Weird Tale: Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Ambrose Pierce, H.P. Lovecraft by S.T. Joshi

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