Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce was an American writer, journalist and Civil War veteran known for dark satire, ghost stories and sharply compressed prose. He served in the Union Army and drew on battlefield experience in stories such as “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga”.

After the war Bierce became an influential newspaper columnist in San Francisco and later wrote The Devil’s Dictionary. In 1913 he travelled into Mexico during the Mexican Revolution and disappeared; the circumstances and date of his death remain unknown.

In John Jakes’ California Gold, Chance encounters figures such as Leland Stanford, William Randolph Hearst, Ambrose Bierce and Theodore Roosevelt as his pursuit of success repeatedly tests the people he loves and the principles he claims to possess.