MASTERS OF THE WEIRD TALE: AMBROSE BIERCE

Limited edition. Signed by the author of the introduction and the illustrator. Publisher's original red cloth with silver titles to the black cloth spine, and with an illustration of a crowing bird atop an American flag stamped in black to the upper board, in the black and red cloth slipcase. Orange satin ribbon page marker. Illustrated endpapers, a colour portrait of Ambrose Bierce, and black and white plates by Jason C. Eckhardt throughout. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh, with just a hint of rubbing to the spine tips. The contents are clean throughout, and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. Housed in the fine, structurally sound slipcase, which remains bright and fresh. A lovely example.

Issued in an edition of 200 copies, from which this example is numbered 48, and signed by the author of the introduction S.T. Joshi and the illustrator Jason C. Eckhardt in black ink on the colophon. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913?) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' (1890) and compiled a satirical lexicon, 'The Devil's Dictionary' (published as 'The Cynic's Word Book' in 1906; the complete version retitled and released in 1911). His style often embraces an abrupt beginning, dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, impossible events and the theme of war. In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. While traveling with Pancho Villa's rebel troops, he disappeared without a trace. The exact circumstances of his death remain a mystery, and have been a point of speculation for numerous contemporary horror and weird fiction authors in their writings.