The Devil's Dictionary

"The Devil's Dictionary" is a virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, offering some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Ambrose Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth. The "Devil's Dictionary,"a satirical book first published in 1911, offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language which lampoon cant and political doublespeak. The Devil's Dictionary has inspired many imitations both in its day and more recently. Recent examples include The Computer Contradictionary. Ambrose Bierce was an iconoclastic literary genius and "The Devil's Dictionary," a compilation of his satirical definitions, is a true American classic. Some may find Bierce sexist, nationalist and racist, but most readers will enjoy his malevolent skepticism and underlying rage against hypocrisy. Only two years after "The Devil's Dictionary" was published in 1911, Ambrose Bierce disappeared after setting off for Mexico to join Pancho Villa's rebels against the corrupt dictatorial regime of Porfirio Diaz. His legacy is memorable.