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.Perhaps the explanation is that he was muchmore interesting as a man than he was signi9 cant as a writer.In anyevent, these volumes throw little light on his character.The  mystery ofhis life remains: the farce continues.This conclusion left ample room for another biography, not by in: atingBierce s literary reputation indeed, McWilliams argued that Bierce swritings were secondary but by focusing on Bierce s still misunderstoodcharacter.Less noticeably, McWilliams managed to shift attention awayfrom Bierce s authentically mysterious death, about which he had little toadd, to the mystery of Bierce s character.Later that month, McWilliams sent the introduction to his biographyto his publisher and promised the rest of the manuscript by August 1.13After visiting Los Gatos, where he interviewed more residents who hadknown Bierce and his family, McWilliams received a letter from AlbertBoni suggesting that he travel east to review the book s galley proofs.McWilliams mailed off the rest of the manuscript on August 26 andboarded a train for New York City.There he was met by Adamic and intro-duced to Stella Sanders, Adamic s future wife.During his stay, he also metMorrow Mayo, whose book on Los Angeles he would later have occasionto cite.The Bierce biography was published that fall.McWilliams dedicated itto Vincent O Sullivan, whom McWilliams had learned about throughMencken.Although O Sullivan, who was by then living in Paris, sharedBierce s (or, perhaps more accurately, Poe s) dark outlook, he had alreadyadmitted to McWilliams that Bierce s work had  never got across to him: I see his merit, of course, but only in three or four stories.Gertrude Ather-ton s opinion that he is the best writer of English which the U.S.A.has pro-duced seems to me grotesque (May 11, 1928).He expressed a similar view48 AMERI CA N P ROP HETin the pages of the Dubliner Magazine, where he mentioned McWilliams sAmerican Mercury article. McWilliams thinks that Bierce should beesteemed less for his tales than for his powers as a writer of satire and invec-tive, O Sullivan wrote.But after citing one example of Bierce s wit, O Sul-livan concluded that the passage was  sheer abuse and too ponderous to gethome.If Bierce s letter were published to-morrow in The Congressional Recordas the outpouring of the Senator from Mississippi or of the representa-tive of the 9 fth Congressional district of New Jersey, nobody wouldthink it unusual or out of place.It is that kind of thing.(O Sullivan 1929,48 49)Of Bierce s 9 ction, O Sullivan was even more critical:  Bierce s style creaks.It belongs to the beaver-hat and stock period.It is antiquated withoutbeing old (49).It is curious that McWilliams s 9 rst book was dedicated to a relativelyobscure expatriate author who had questioned both Bierce s worthiness asa subject and McWilliams s claims about him.One motive behind thededication was that McWilliams saw O Sullivan as a future subject and apotential editorial asset.In April 1925, McWilliams had written toMencken that he was hoping to publish a study of O Sullivan, and he even-tually produced two articles on him and his work.Three years later,McWilliams wrote O Sullivan that he had a  chance to take over a weeklyliterary page on a local newspaper.In case I do, I would try and induce youto write a Paris letter occasionally.There would be some money in it foryou (Sept.1, 1928).That scenario never came to pass, but the two contin-ued to correspond until the outbreak of the Second World War, whichO Sullivan did not survive.14If McWilliams s dedication creates a minor mystery, the rest of the biog-raphy helped to rectify the facts of Bierce s life.Born in Ohio and raised onan Indiana farm, Bierce served in the Union army before arriving in SanFrancisco in 1866.There his 9 rst column began to appear in the San Fran-cisco News Letter and California Advertiser.His reputation spread in SanFrancisco, where he met Mark Twain and Bret Harte, and back East,where his works were frequently reprinted.In 1872, Bierce moved to En-gland, where he published three books.Returning to the Bay Area in 1875,Bierce edited the Argonaut and wrote his column, ultimately titledIn9 nite Revolt 49 Prattle. He also tried his hand at gold mining in the Dakotas; unsuccess-ful in that venture, he once again returned to San Francisco and edited theWasp until 1887.In that year, Bierce met twenty-four-year-old WilliamRandolph Hearst, who persuaded Bierce to continue writing  Prattle forthe San Francisco Examiner (Nasaw 2000, 63).Bierce s work for the Exam-iner consolidated his reputation as a journalist and provided him with acomfortable salary.In 1896, Hearst asked Bierce to travel to Washington, D.C., to cover thefate of the Funding Bill, which would have allowed the nation s major rail-roads to defer repayment of government loans.The assignment offeredBierce the opportunity to attack California s preeminent commercial andpolitical power, the Southern Paci9 c Railroad.Bierce personalized the bat-tle by targeting the bill s chief lobbyist, Collis P.Huntington, the last of theoriginal railroad magnates.In his 9 rst article, Bierce wrote,  Mr.Hunting-ton is not altogether bad.Though severe, he is merciful.He tempers invec-tive with falsehood.He says ugly things of the enemy, but he has the ten-derness to be careful that they are mostly lies (239).15 When Huntingtontesti9 ed about the bill, Bierce wrote,  Mr.Huntington appeared before thecommittee and took his hands out of all pockets long enough to be sworn(240).McWilliams relates the anecdote in which the two men met on thesteps of the Capitol and Huntington asked Bierce to name his price.Hisprice, Bierce replied, was the amount Huntington owed the government; ifpaid, Bierce would turn it over to the secretary of the treasury.In January1897, the bill was defeated, and McWilliams credits Bierce for contributingto that outcome,  which marked the doom of the Southern Paci9 c domi-nance in California (245).After the defeat of the Funding Bill, Hearst switched Bierce to maga-zine work, but his light was dimming as the new politics of the ProgressiveEra unfolded in California.Bierce had become, in Jack London s words, a magni9 cent crystallization. Furthermore, he no longer relished theattack.When Hearst proposed Joseph Pulitzer as a new target of invective,Bierce declined. I don t like the job of chained bulldog to be let looseonly to tear the panties off the boys who throw rocks at you, he wroteHearst in July 1907 (295).After Willard Huntington Wright, editor of theSmart Set, asked for a contribution, Bierce told a friend,  One hates to becaught with a magazine having so hateful a title (296).Instead, Bierce50 AMERI CA N P ROP HETgathered his collected works, which appeared in twelve volumes.Hewrote to one correspondent that he was  sleepy for death and that he  wasgoing away (313).Soon after, he asked his daughter rhetorically why heshould stay in a country on the eve of women s suffrage and Prohibition.He then announced his interest in the Mexican Revolution and his planto travel to El Paso, where he would  buy a donkey and hire a peon and perhaps write a few articles about the situation.  This 9 ghting in Mexicointerests me.I want to go down and see if these Mexicans shoot straight(316).He made the trip with two thousand dollars in gold on his personand reported shooting a man to remove any suspicions among the armytroops with whom he was traveling. Poor devil! Bierce wrote of his vic-tim. I wonder who he was! (324) [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]