The Fiend's Delight

AMBROSE BIERCE (1842-1914) journalist, satirist, and Civil War veteran, began his satirical redefinitions of ordinary words in a weekly newspaper in 1881, and saw them first collected in The Cynic's Word Book (1906). It was with the 1911 republication as The Devil's Dictionary that he struck comedy gold for the ages with his ironic riffs on American culture. Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States.