Collected Essays and Journalism, Volume 17: 1886: Edited by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi

Ambrose Bierce’s final year as editor of the Wasp saw him attain unprecedented heights of productivity and satirical flourish. He continued his popular “Prattle” columns, along with numerous installments of “The Devil’s Dictionary,” parodic society columns, Little Johnny pieces, and much else. He exercised his wit in a number of pungent poems on a wide array of subjects, and he repeatedly returned to the case of William Sharon, a former U.S. senator involved in a sordid adultery trial involving a kept woman. Bierce also contributed lengthy unsigned editorials in which he addressed issues of both local and national interest. Toward the end of the year he contributed several works of fiction, both humorous and horrific. Among them was one of his most memorable tales, “An Inhabitant of Carcosa.”