Source Evaluations and Bibliography

 

Source Analysis

 

Ambrose Bierce Alone in Bad Company
                by Roy Morris Jr.
                Crown Publisher's
                New York
                1998

Alone in Bad Company is a useful source as the author includes as much information as possible. Morris Jr. uses many different sources, including primary sources, which are included in his biography of Ambrose Bierce, and therefore makes it a reliable text. He gives valuable insight into the writings of Bierce. He does this by relating the stories to Bierce's life his context. Morris seems to have studied the American Civil War extensively. This makes the book a very valuable and useful source for the project, as knowledge about the war is required.

The strengths of the source are the use of both primary and secondary texts, the content centring around the American Civil War, and the detailed biographical details of Bierce. Its weakness is bias in the direction of praising Bierce. The central argument in Alone in Bad Company is the extent to which Bierce's life and personality affected his writing and decisions.

 

The Civil War Stories of Ambrose Bierce
                Ambrose Bierce
                'San Francisco Examiner' and 'Cosmopolitan (New York)'
                1888-1891

The Civil War stories of Ambrose Bierce include "What I Saw of Shiloh' and 'One of the Missing'. These stories are very reliable as they are primary sources. They are useful as they allowed me to have a greater understanding of Bierce and to give my own opinions on what his stories represent. The stories are valuable as they are primary sources and convey a part of Bierce that is not seen in any biographies about his life. They are, in essence, an autobiography.

Strengths in the stories include Bierce's own opinions of the American Civil War. They show the context in which he was writing and convey a part of his life. The conditions of the Civil War are also displayed. The weakness of the source is that they do not, in any clear terms, say what Bierce's representation of the war is. They do, however, allow interpretation. Most of the stories are from the point of view of a Union soldier, creating bias.

The central argument of the source is that war is an undesirable thing. It mainly focuses on the American Civil War. It also shows how people are likely to choose their country or beliefs over their family. The stories are often dark and are filled with death.

'Ambrose Bierce Project'
                http://www.ambrosebierce.org/main.html
                Craig A. Warren
                Erie, Pennsylvania
                Copyright 2005-2012

The Ambrose Bierce Project is a reliable site as it provides a short summary of the life of Ambrose Bierce, his stories, and the credentials of the site authors and editors. It is useful for the beginning of an investigation, but it is not as useful for an in-depth investigation. It is valuable as it contains the all of the stories of Bierce in a categorical order.

The strengths of the website is that it contains a short summary of Bierce's life, his stories and other texts such as essays and articles. There is also a list of possible sources, but  it does not claim to have used them. It appears to be largely unbiased. Weaknesses include a lack of detailed information and lacks citation and so can make unfounded claims. The source gives information about the life of Bierce and it provides its viewers with the stories of Bierce. This allows for an introduction into possible further research into the life of Bierce.

 

 

 

Bibliography

owned by AMAZON, 'IMDB Internet Movie Database', Copyright © 1990-2012 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098022/

Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett, 'A Baffled Ambuscade', Cosmopolitan (New York), 1906
                                                'A Horseman in the Sky', San Francisco Examiner, 14 April 1889
                                                'A Little of Chickamauga', 1898
                                                'A Resumed Identity', Cosmopolitan (New York),  September 1908
                                                'A Son of the Gods', San Francisco Examiner, July 29 1888
                                                'A Tough Tussle', San Francisco Examiner , 30 September 1888
                                                'An Affair at Coulter's Notch', San Francisco Examiner, October 20, 1889
                                                'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', San Francisco Examiner , 13 July 1890
                                                'An Affair of Outposts', San Francisco Examiner , 19 December 1897
                                                'Bivouac of the Dead',1903                                          
                                                'Chickamauga', San Francisco Examiner , 20 January, 1889
                                                'On a Mountain', 1909
                                                'On Black Soldiering', San Francisco Examiner , 5 June 1898
                                                'One Kind of Officer', San Francisco Examiner, January 1 1893
                                                'One Officer, One Man', San Francisco Examiner , 17 February 1889
                                                'One of the Missing', San Francisco Examiner, March 11 1888
                                                'Parker Addison, Philosopher', San Francisco Examiner , 22 February 1891
                                                'The Coup de Grace', San Francisco Examiner,  30 June 1889
                                                'The Damned Thing', Town Topics, 7 December 1893
                                                'The Story of a Conscience', San Francisco Examiner , 1 June 1890
                                                'Two Military Executions', Cosmopolitan (New York), November 1906
                                                'What I Saw of Shiloh', 1881

                (from: Craig A. Warren, 'The Ambrose Bierce Project', Erie Pennsylvania, Copyright 2005-                                              2012, 16.08.2012, http://www.ambrosebierce.org/main.html)

Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett, edited by David E. Shultz and S.T. Joshi, Unabridged Devil's Dictionary, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, copyright 2000, 2002 edition pg 24

Coerver, Don M., Pasztor, Suzanne B., Buffington, Robert M., Mexico: An Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Culture and History, Santa Barbara, California, Copyright 2004

edited by Joshi, S.T., Dziemianowisc, Stefan, Supernatural Literature of the World An Encyclopaedia Vol.  1 A-F, Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, pg 109-113

Lanier, Robert S., Elson, Henry W., Rodenbough, Theo F., The Photographic History of the Civil War, Crown Publishers, New York, 1989

Marcus, Greil, Werner, Sollors, A New Literary History of America, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009

Morris, Jr., Roy, Ambrose Bierce Alone in Bad Company, Crown Publisher's, New York,  1998, pg 14

mywonderfulfullworld, Ancient Aliens S03 E01 Aliens and the old west VOSTFR, Time 33:37- 38:25, Youtube, Youtube LCC, 2012, last viewed 27.08.2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Yye1N1fiA+

Rusignulogo, Michael N., Copyright 1994-2004, 'Ambrose Bierce Appreciation Society', http://biercephile.com/life.cfm

Swaim, Don, The Ambrose Bierce Site, created 1996, 27.08.2012, http://donswaim.com/index.html

UnisonMusicGroup, 'Babybird - Unloveable', YouTube, Youtube LCC, 2012, last viewed 28/08/2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxrYcTgATaM

U.S. Department of the Interior, 'National Parks Service', last visited 26.07.2012, http://www.nps.gov/kemo/index.htm

Warren, Craig A.,The Ambrose Bierce Project, http://www.ambrosebierce.org/main.html, Copyright 2005-2012, last visited 16.08.2012

Werner, Michael S., Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico,  Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago, 2001

Wikipedia Foundation, Wikipedia, last modified 23 August 2012 at 22:31, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce, last viewed 29.08.2012