The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs

by Ambrose Bierce

306.19 Winnemucca] The seat of Humboldt County in northwestern Nevada; founded as a trading post in 1850.

  306.26 Piute Indians] A Shoshonean tribe chiefly occupying portions of Utah and Nevada. They were the subject of an essay, “The Pi-Ute Indians of Nevada,” that Bierce published in the Golden Era, July 4, 1868.

  310.13 Sonora] The seat of Tuolumne County in east-central California.

  313.30 Modoc] An American Indian tribe inhabiting an area of the Cascade Range in south-central Oregon and northern California.

  318.31 non sum qualis eram] “Non sum qualis eram bonae / sub regno Cinarae” (I am not the same as I was under the rule of Cynara). Horace, Odes 4.13–4; used as the title of a poem by Ernest Dowson (1867–1900).

  324.36 ‘blown by the viewless winds’] Cf. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, III.i.123–125: “To be imprison’d in the viewless winds / And blown with restless violence round about / The pendant world.”

  327.25 “Denneker’s Meditations,”] See note 296.30.

  340.2 “the tragedy, ‘Man’ ”] Edgar Allan Poe, “The Conqueror Worm” (1843), l.39.

  340.33–35 *Rough notes . . . transcription.] Leigh Bierce (1874–1901) was Bierce’s second child; he died of pneumonia. Bierce wrote to George Sterling on March 12, 1906: “Yes, the ‘Cosmopolitan’ cat-story is Leigh’s and is to be credited to him if ever published in covers. I fathered it as the only way to get it published at all. Of course I had to rewrite it; it was very crude and too horrible. A story may be terrible, but must not be horrible—there is a difference. I found the manuscript among his papers.”

  342.3 Auburn and Newcastle] Towns in Placer County, about four miles apart. In 1884–85 Bierce lived in Auburn, about which he wrote the satirical poem “The Perverted Village” (Wasp, July 5, 1884).

  343.11 Putnam House] A hotel on Lincoln Way in Auburn, built in 1880. In 1900 it became the Conroy House; in 1912 it burned down, and another hotel was built on the site.

  343.20–21 Bohemian Club] A prestigious social club founded by the journalist James F. Bowman, with the assistance of Bierce and others, in 1872; Bierce served as its secretary in 1876–77 but later resigned to protest what he felt was its flattery of royal and noble visitors.

  346.5 “sentences letters”] Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), l.443.

  346.10–11 veils . . . expires,] Alexander Pope, The Dunciad (1742), 4.649–50.

  356.30 manifold paper] An early type of carbon paper.

  363.20 ‘actinic’ rays] Ultraviolet rays.

  364.6 Hastur] An invention of Bierce’s; later borrowed by Robert W. Chambers in The King in Yellow (1895) and by H. P. Lovecraft in “The Whisperer in Darkness” (1930), although their usages do not conform with Bierce’s.

  374.30 Big Bend] An archaic term for the wide southward curve of the Gila River southwest of Phoenix, as it skirts the Gila Bend Mountains.

  382.4 Franklin, Tennessee] Site of a battle during the Civil War, November 30, 1864, in which Bierce fought. See “What Occurred at Franklin” in this volume.

  382.27 Palace Hotel] A lavish hotel built by William C. Ralston in 1875; destroyed by the earthquake and fire of 1906.

  385.3 “a still and awful red”] Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), l. 271.

  389.9 Fort Phil Kearney] Army post in north-central Wyoming.

  389.9 Colonel Carrington] Colonel (later General) Henry Beebee Carrington (1824–1912).

  389.14 Captain Fetterman] Captain William J. Fetterman of the 18th Infantry left Fort Phil Kearny on December 21, 1866 with seventy-nine soldiers and two civilians to rescue a wagon train that was being attacked by Sioux Indians; Fetterman and his entire command were killed in an ambush.

  389.15 Fort C. F. Smith] The first army post in Montana, just across the border from Wyoming.

  389.19 Henry rifle] A lever-action repeating rifle patented in 1860 and manufactured, 1862–66, by the New Haven Arms Company; the forerunner of the Winchester rifle.

  392.3–4 Carthage, Tennessee] The county seat of Smith County in north-central Tennessee; the site of a skirmish between Union and Confederate troops on January 23, 1863.

  395.2–5 Readyville . . . Tullahoma] Murfreesboro, in Rutherford county in central Tennessee, was the site of the battle of Stones River (see note 46.28). Readyville is a village about ten miles east of Murfreesboro, on the Woodbury Road; Woodbury is a town four miles east of Readyville. Tullahoma is a city in Coffee county, thirty miles south of Murfreesboro.

  398.14 “green and salad days”] See note 40.33.

  398.18–19 Sir Andrew Aguecheek . . . first.] See Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, III.iv.284–285: “I’d have seen him damn’d ere I’d have challeng’d him.”

  399.33 Society for Psychical Research] An organization founded in England in 1882 to investigate psychic phenomena; an American branch was established in 1885.

  401.2 The Isle of Pines] The Isla de Pinos, an island in the Caribbean Sea, sixty miles south of Cuba; discovered by Columbus in 1494, and for the next 300 years occupied by pirates and runaway slaves, until formal colonization began in 1827.

  401.3–4 Gallipolis, Ohio] The seat of Gallia County in southern Ohio, directly south of Meigs County, where Bierce was born.

  405.3–4 Cincinnati Commercial] A newspaper published between 1843 and 1883.

  408.3 Maysville] County seat of De Kalb county in northwestern Missouri.

  421.11 “In September . . . siege.”] The siege of Atlanta began on July 22, 1864, and lasted until September 2, when Union troops captured the city.

  428.2–3 Leamington, Warwickshire, England] Bierce lived in Leamington from April 1874 to June 1875.

  430.34 Dr. Hern] Dr. Hern and his book are fictitious.

  THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY

  437.9 Poor Isabella . . . abdication] Isabella II (1830–1904) abdicated the Spanish throne in 1870 following the revolution of 1868.

  439.22–24 Dr. Samuel Johnson . . . abruption.”] See Johnson, “Life of Cowley,” Lives of the English Poets (1779–81).

  439.25 “move in a mysterious way,”] William Cowper, “Olney Hymns” (1774), 35.1.

  441.18 de Joinville] Jean de Joinville (c. 1225–1317), author of The Life of Saint Louis, containing an account of the Seventh Crusade led by Louis IX, in which Joinville participated.

  444.6 Herodotus says] See Herodotus, Histories 4.45.

  447.37 the ass that carried Balaam] Numbers 22:21–35.

  448.1 dog of the Seven Sleepers] The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus were Christian youths said to have fled into a cave to escape the persecutions of Emperor Decius, and who awoke some two centuries later during the reign of Theodosiuis II. In Islamic tradition they were guarded by a dog keeping watching outside the cave (Qu’ran, surah 18, verses 9–26).

  448.24 facilis descensus Averni] Virgil, Aeneid 6.126: “The descent to Avernus is easy.” Avernus was a lake believed to be an entrance to the underworld.

  455.11 Henry Ward Beecher] Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and abolitionist (1813–1887); Bierce frequently attacked him.

  456.27 Zeno] Zeno of Citium (35?–263? B.C.E.), founder of the Stoic school of philosophy.

  459.34–35 scripture story . . . John the Baptist on a charger] See Mark 6:24–28 and Matthew 14:6–11.

  471.5–6 “men . . . days,”] From Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s Iliad 5.372 and 12.540.

  474.8 Senator Depew] Chauncey M. Depew (1834–1928), U.S. senator (Republican) from New York (1899–1911).

  475.27–28 Pliny . . . Cæsar] Druids are mentioned throughout Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. For Caesar on Druids, see Gallic War 6.13–16.

  477.23 Brillat-Savarin] Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826), French jurist and author of Physiologie du goût (1825), a celebrated treatise on gastronomy.

  478.13 Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Æacus] Legendary Greek kings who became judges of the dead in Hades.

  480.23–26 The cur . . . key] A parody of the first stanza of Gray�
�s Elegy (1751).

  482.9–10 Byron . . . “entuzy-muzy,”] Byron uses the expression “entusimusy” (attributing it to John Braham) in a letter dated April 26, 1817.

  486.12–13 “The Exile of Erin,”] A poem by Thomas Campbell (1777– 1844).

  492.16–17 “how . . . refines”] A loose quotation from Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism (1711), l. 420.

  492.19 “gift and faculty divine”] See note 217.39–218.1.

  492.35 Dick Watson Gilder] Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909), American poet and editor.

  494.1–2 Gibbons . . . Potter] James Gibbons (1834–1921), Roman Catholic bishop, archbishop, and cardinal; Henry Codman Potter (1834–1908), Episcopal bishop of New York.

  496.18 Homer’s narrative] Batrachomyomachia (The Battle of Frogs and Mice), parodistic mini-epic attributed to Homer by some ancient authorities.

  496.21 Dr. Schliemann] Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890), archeologist who discovered the site of Troy in 1871.

  500.5 “in his habit as he lived.”] See note 128.22–23.

  505.12 Hon. James Wilson] Wilson (1836–1920) was secretary of agriculture under McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft (1897–1913).

  507.36 Dr. Mary Walker] Walker (1831–1899) was a social reformer, suffragist, and a nurse and physician during the Civil War.

  510.36–37 Delectatio Daemonorum] A rough translation of The Fiend’s Delight (London: John Camden Hotten, 1873), Bierce’s first book.

  511.1 Professor Dam] Henry J. Dam (d. 1906), briefly a co-owner of The Wasp when Bierce was writing for it.

  511.4 Professor Tyndall] John Tyndall (1820–1893), British physicist best known for his work on the absorption of gases by radiant heat.

  511.9 Crede expertum] Incorrect Latin for crede experto (“believe one who has experienced it”), from Virgil’s Aeneid, 11.283.

  511.12–13 Professor Howison] George Holmes Howison (1834–1917), professor of philosophy at the University of California and author of several works on religion and philosophy.

  513.3 Bishop Kip] William Ingraham Kip (1811–1893), first bishop of the Episcopal Church of California.

  513.15 Niebuhr] Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831), German historian who revolutionized the study of ancient history.

  523.7 Dr. Gunsaulus] Frank W. Gunsaulus (1856–1921), prolific writer on religion, education, and other subjects.

  523.10 Professor Garret P. Serviss] Garret Putnam Serviss (1851–1929), journalist, astronomer, and novelist. He was not a professor.

  525.30 Victor Hugo] Hugo conducted séances when living in political exile on the isle of Jersey.

  527.4 “Heaven lies about us.”] Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (1807), l. 60.

  537.20 “the most pious Edward”] Shakespeare, Macbeth, III.vi.27, referring to Edward the Confessor (r. 1042–66). The three other quotations from Macbeth are from IV.iii.141–145, IV.iii.154–56, and IV.iii.150–52.

  540.32 Dr. Meir Witchell] A parody of S. Weir Mitchell (1829–1914), American physician, novelist, and poet who wrote on scientific and medical subjects.

  542.17 Muhlenberg, “care not to stay.”] See William Augustus Muhlenberg, “I Would Not Live Alway” (1823): “I would not live alway, I ask not to stay / Where storm after storm rises dark o’er the way.”

  542.27–28 Bella Peeler Silcox] A parody of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850– 1919), popular poet whose work often appeared adjacent to Bierce’s in the Hearst papers. He held her work in low esteem.

  543.19 Dr. Jordan] David Starr Jordan (1851–1931), professor of biology and later president of Stanford University (1891–1913).

  543.23 Jane Porter] Jane Porter (1776–1850), British novelist and author of a popular historical novel, Thaddeus of Warsaw (1803), about Thaddeus Kosciusko.

  547.9–10 Harry Thurston Peck] Peck (1856–1914) was a professor of Latin at Columbia and a literary critic and editor with whom Bierce occasionally engaged in journalistic battles.

  550.15–16 Baring-Gould’s Curious Myths of the Middle Ages] Collection of folk legends (1866) by British writer S. Baring-Gould (1834–1924).

  550.19–21 “Teddy . . . Brisbane”] “Teddy” refers to Theodore Roosevelt; John Sharp Williams (1854–1932) was a U.S. representative from Mississippi; Arthur Brisbane (1864–1936) was one of Hearst’s leading writers.

  550.30 the poet Gilder] See note 494.14.

  550.33 Huntington] Collis P. Huntington (1821–1900), one of the “Big Four” railroad barons whom Bierce relentlessly attacked in 1896 when Huntington was lobbying Congress to gain a lengthy extension on his repayment of government loans for the building of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

  551.13–15 Lucian, Locke . . . Newcomb] Lucian of Samosata (second century C.E.), Greek satirist and author of the True History, about a voyage to the moon; Richard Adams Locke (1800–1871), American journalist and the reputed author of a hoax about the inhabitants of the moon, published in the New York Sun in 1835; Simon Newcomb (1835–1909), Canadian-born professor of mathematics and prolific writer on astronomy.

  560.10 “Mens conscia recti,”] The proper quotation is mens sibi conscia recti (Virgil, Aeneid 1.604): “A mind aware of the right.”

  563.13–14 The bones . . . monument,] From Andrew Lang’s sonnet “Homeric Unity” (1893).

  567.25–26 Lewes . . . thought.”] See note 257.13–14.

  570.12 Disraeli . . . Wilberforce] The source of the Disraeli quotation has not been ascertained. Disraeli would have been referring to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (1805–1873), a leading Anglican theologian of his day.

  580.1–2 “There is . . . face.”] A loose quotation from Macbeth, I. iv.n–12.

  584.4 “The Matter with Kansas.”] See “What’s the Matter with Kansas?,” editorial by William Allen White published in the Emporia Gazette, August 15, 1896.

  588.20 “Stone . . . make,”] Richard Lovelace, “To Althea: From Prison” (1649), l. 25.

  588.30 Jo. Miller] Joaquin Miller (1837–1913), California poet and longtime friend of Bierce.

  589.2–3 Mr. Edward Bok] Bok (1863–1930) edited the Ladies’ Home Journal from 1899 until his death.

  595.33 Mr. Debs] Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926), labor leader and Socialist candidate for president.

  599.31 Leonard Wood] General Leonard Wood (1860–1927), military governor of Cuba (1899–1902) whose promotion to brigadier general in 1901 had been opposed by Bierce.

  600.21 Altgeld] John Peter Altgeld (1847–1902), governor of Illinois (1893–97) whose political career was largely finished by his 1893 pardon of a group of anarchists convicted of murder during the Haymarket riots in Chicago on May 4, 1886.

  611.20 Denis Kearney] Kearney (1847–1907) was a leader of the Workingmen’s Party in San Francisco.

  618.23 James F. Bowman] Bowman (d. 1882) contributed to the Argonaut when Bierce was writing for that weekly paper (1877–80).

  623.11–12 William D. Howells] Bierce refers to Howells’s two collections of ghost stories, Questionable Shapes (1903) and Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907).

  623.20–21 Rudolph Block . . . Percival Pollard] Block (1870–1940), journalist and fiction writer whose work frequently appeared in Cosmopolitan during Bierce’s tenure with that magazine (1905–39); Percival Pollard (1869–1911), editor, critic, and friend of Bierce, who wrote about Bierce in Their Day in Court (1909).

  623.31 W. C. Morrow] Morrow (1854–1923), fiction writer and friend of Bierce. Bierce highly praised his collection of horror stories, The Ape, the Idiot and Other People (1897).

  624.4 J. J. Owen] Owen (1827–1895), author of a column in Better Times, a religious magazine in San Jose, and several books on religion.

  624.15 Rear-Admiral Schley . . . Charles F. Joy] Admiral Winfield Scott Schley (1839–1911), American naval commander at the Battle of Santiago, Cuba (July 3, 1898); Charles Frederick Joy (1849–1921), U.S. representative from Missouri (1893–94, 1895–1903).

  624.22–23 General
Miles] General Nelson Appleton Miles (1839–1925), who led the force that occupied Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.

  624.35 Champ Clark] James Beauchamp “Champ” Clark (1850–1921), U.S. representative from Missouri (1893–95, 1897–1905).

  625.32 H. H. Wotherspoon] General Harold Herbert Wotherspoon (1855– 1940), president of the Army War College.

  626.6 General Barry] Edmund Chaffee Barry (1854–1915), who succeeded Wotherspoon at the Army War College.

  626.23 “John A. Joyce.”] John Alexander Joyce (1842–1915), American poet and biographer whose work Bierce disdained.

  632.31 Madame Blavatsky] See note 194.35.

  632.35–37 Lillian Russell . . . Pauline Hall] Russell (1861–1922) and Hall (1860–1919) were popular singers of the day.

  638.25 Sir Boyle Roche] Roche (1743–1807), Irish politician known for the flamboyance of his speeches.

  642.6–7 “the glory . . . Rome.”] See Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” (1831), ll. 9–10.

  651.15–17 Buffon . . . Nature] Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707–1788), L’Histoire générale des animaux (1788–1804; completed by E. de Lacépède); Oliver Goldsmith (I730?–I774), An History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774).

  BITS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY

  655.11 “in which . . . afternoon.”] Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters” (1832), l. 4.

  655.15 “most immemorial year,”] Poe, “Ulalume” (1847), l. 5.

  656.13 the opening lines of “The Pleasures of Hope,”] Thomas Campbell published The Pleasures of Hope (1799) when he was twenty-two. Its opening lines describe a mountain seen from a distance.

  657.24 “the mast . . . admiral”] Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), 1.293–94.

  657.25 “made the pile complete”] Tennyson, In Memoriam: A. H. H. (1850), 54.8.

  658.3–4 Pursuit . . . possession.] A misquotation of “Possession” (1866), by Robert Kelley Weeks (1840–1876): “And love may be, so it seems to me, / Complete without possession.”

  661.19–20 “telling of the sound,”] Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), l. 559.

  661.33 General Johnston . . . Beauregard’s army] General Albert Sidney Johnston (1803–1862), was fatally wounded during the first day of fighting at Shiloh; General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818–1893) was Johnston’s second in command at Shiloh.