{"product_id":"the-devils-dictionary-by-ambrose-bierce-2019-hardcover-very-good","title":"The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (2019) Hardcover VERY GOOD","description":"\u003cp\u003eHardcover in Very Good condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmbrose Bierce, journalist and former soldier for the Union army in the Civil War, began writing satirical definitions for the San Francisco \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eWasp\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e in 1881, and later for the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Examiner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, launching a journalistic career that would see him liked and loathed in equal measure and earn him the title of “the wickedest man in San Francisco.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA contemporary of Mark Twain, Bierce brought his biting humor to bear on spoof definitions of everyday words, writing deliberate mistranslations of the vocabulary of the establishment, the church, and the politics of his day, and shining a sardonic light on hypocrisy and deception. These columns formed the beginnings of a dictionary, first published in 1906 as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Cynic’s Word Book\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, which stopped at the letter L, and five years later as a full A–Z text known as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Devil's Dictionary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. More than one hundred years later, Bierce’s redefinitions still give us pause for thought: interpreting \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003ereporter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, for example, as “a writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a tempest of words”; \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eun-american\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e as “wicked, intolerable, heathenish”; and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003epolitics\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e as “the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” This timely new edition of Bierce’s irreverent and provocative dictionary is the perfect gift for misanthropes and word lovers alike.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ex Libris Used Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49265421156579,"sku":"EXL002589","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0562\/5675\/7951\/files\/s-l500-2026-06-15T170646.658.webp?v=1781557665","url":"https:\/\/www.exlibrismichigan.com\/products\/the-devils-dictionary-by-ambrose-bierce-2019-hardcover-very-good","provider":"Ex Libris Used Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}