BIERCE CORRECTS
MARK TWAIN
In his San Francisco Examiner column of Aug. 26, 1888, Bierce takes to task his acquaintance Mark Twain for erring about Bierce's biography. Bierce writes:
I have been looking through Mark Twain's new Library of Humor and find that it justifies its title. Possibly I am a trifle prejudiced in its favor, for the very funniest thing in it, according to my notion of humor, is a brief biography of myself. It is as follows--barring the bracketed words:
Ambrose Bierce, author of "Bierce's Fables" [I am not], was born in Akron, O. [I was not], in 1843 [I was not]. He served as a soldier in the war, and in 1865 went to San Francisco [I did not], where he was engaged in newspaper work until 1872. Then he went to London, where he had great success [I had not], and published "Bierceiana" [I did not]. With the younger Tom Hood he founded London Fun [I did not]. He returned to California in 1877 [I did not] and is now an editor of the San Francisco EXAMINER [I am not].
Bierce was an admirer of the older Twain, first meeting him in 1868 San Francisco, where Bierce was writing the "The Town Crier" column in the News-Letter. There he met Mark Twain who visited the News-Letter to repay a loan to the publisher. Bierce reconnected with Twain in London in the winter of 1873 when Bierce dined with Twain and Joaquin Miller in a riotous celebration at the Friars Club.
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