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The Devil's Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing laughter with his witty opinion columns, poems, and definitions. Toward the end of his career, he decided to compile these satirical definitions into a book, following in the footsteps of Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, and Gustave Flaubert. Immensely popular upon publication, The Devil's Dictionary inspired countless imitators, but remains one-of-a-kind. Reading Bierce's definitions today, it's not hard to imagine the controversy they must have caused, matched only by the laughs they must have roused, when published at the onset of the twentieth century. Written during a period of undaunted industrial growth, of immense wealth and promise in a nation recently torn apart by civil war, The Devil's Dictionary preserves a tantalizing touch of irreverence and doubt which must remain funny to those who know humor when they sense it. “AIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful providence for the fattening of the poor.” “CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” Crafted for the cynic, quoted by the misanthrope, Bierce's definitions prove profoundly entertaining and frequently accurate—sort of—over a century after they were published. This edition of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

The dictionary was never meant to be an extensive project, and the entries don't go any further than the one for “Lord.” As Bierce writes in the preface, “As it was no part of the author's purpose to define all the words in the language, or even to make a complete alphabetical series, the stopping-place of the book was determined by considerations of bulk.... In the event of this volume proving acceptable to that part of the reading public to which in humility it is addressed—enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to sentiment, good English to slang, and wit to humor—there may possibly be another if the author be spared for the compiling.” Apparently it was acceptable, as a second edition, this time called The Devil's Dictionary, was published in 1911.

Classic satire in the form of a dictionary. According to Wikipedia:'Ambrose Bierce (1842? 1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist, today best known for his An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce's lucid, unsentimental style has kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have been consigned to oblivion. His dark, sardonic views and vehemence as a critic earned him the nickname,'Bitter Bierce'. Such was his reputation that it was said his judgment on any piece of prose or poetry could make or break a writer's career.'

Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914) was an American writer who also served the Union in the American Civil War. Bierce wrote extensively on what he had seen as a soldier in the war, including the popular short stories An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Chickamauga. The Devil's Dictionary is one of his classics.

'The Devil's Dictionary'is a satirical dictionary written by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions. (Wikipedia)

This Point Blank Classics edition includes the full original text as well as exclusive images exclusive to this edition and an easy to use interactive table of contents.

The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical reference book written by Ambrose Bierce. The book offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language, lampooning cant, and political doublespeak, as well as other aspects of human foolishness and frailty. A number of the definitions are accompanied by satiric verses, many of which are signed with comic pseudonyms such as Salder Bupp and Orm Pludge; the most frequently appearing contributor is that learned and ingenious cleric, Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J., whose lines bear his initials.

A veteran of some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, Ambrose Bierce went on to become one of the darkest and most death haunted of American writers, the blackest of black humorists. This volume gathers the most celebrated and significant of Bierce's writings. In the Midst of Life (Tales of Soldiers and Civilians), his collection of short fiction about the Civil War, which includes the masterpieces'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'and'Chickamauga,'is suffused with a fiercely ironic sense of the horror and randomness of war. Can Such Things Be? brings together'The Death of Halpin Frayser,''The Damned Thing,''The Moonlit Road,'and other tales of terror that make Bierce the genre's most significant American practitioner between Poe and Lovecraft. The Devil's Dictionary, the brilliant lexicon of subversively cynical definitions on which Bierce worked for decades, displays to the full his corrosive wit. In Bits of Autobiography, the series of memoirs that includes the memorable'What I Saw of Shiloh,'he recreates his experiences in the war and its aftermath. The volume is rounded out with a selection of his best uncollected stories. Acclaimed Bierce scholar S. T. Joshi provides detailed notes and a newly researched chronology of Bierce's life and mysterious disappearance.LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Ambrose Bierce's great satirical work,'The Devil's Dictionary'is not a real dictionary, but rather a lampoon of the English language. The definitions provide satirical, witty and often politically pointed representations of the words that is seeks to'define'.

If we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary. There, a bore is'a person who talks when you wish him to listen,'and happiness is'an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.'This is the most comprehensive, authoritative edition ever of Ambrose Bierce's satiric masterpiece. It renders obsolete all other versions that have appeared in the book's ninety-year history.A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth.This new edition is based on David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi's exhaustive investigation into the book's writing and publishing history. All of Bierce's known satiric definitions are here, including previously uncollected, unpublished, and alternative entries. Definitions dropped from previous editions have been restored while nearly two hundred wrongly attributed to Bierce have been excised. For dedicated Bierce readers, an introduction and notes are also included.Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary is a classic that stands alongside the best work of satirists such as Twain, Mencken, and Thurber. This unabridged edition will be celebrated by humor fans and word lovers everywhere.

Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, short-story writer and critic Ambrose Bierce developed into one of this country's most celebrated and cynical wits--a merciless'American Swift'whose literary barbs were aimed at folly, self-delusion, politics, business, religion, literature and the arts. In this splendid'dictionary'of epigrams, essays, verses and vignettes, you'll find over 1,000 pointed definitions, e.g. Congratulation ('The civility of envy'), Coward ('One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs') and Historian ('A broad-gauge gossip'). Anyone who likes to laugh will love The Devil's Dictionary. Anyone looking for a bon mot to enliven their next speech, paper or conversation will have a field day thumbing through what H. L. Mencken called'some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language.'