The Devil’s Dictionary (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

Contrary to rumor and speculation, Ambrose Bierce was not in league with the devil.  Bierce earned the nickname “The Wickedest Man in San Francisco” not by indulging in acts of depravity himself, but by recording the sins and follies of his fellow man.  As a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and other newspapers, he heaped scorn upon the scoundrels infesting late nineteenth-century America.  Here, in his best work, Bierce relies less on venom than on a wit sharp enough to cut glass.  TheDevil’s Dictionary is one of the most oft-quoted works in all of American literature.  Yet beneath its cynical humor, it remains an unflinchingly honest books about human nature.