앰브로즈 비어스

소개

앰브로즈 그위넷 비어스(Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, 1842년 6월 24일 ~ 1913년 12월 26일 이후?)는 미국의 사설작가, 언론인, 단편소설작가, 우화작가, 풍자작가이다. 현대에는 단편소설 〈아울 시냇물 다리에서 생긴 일〉("An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge")과 풍자적 어휘사전 《악마의 사전》(The Devil's Dictionary)으로 유명하다. “문제될 것 없다”를 모토로 내세운 맹렬한 평론과 작품 근간에 깔려 있는 인간 본성에 대한 냉소적 관점으로 인해 ‘신랄한 비어스’(Bitter Bierce)라는 별명을 얻었다.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American author, journalist, and poet. A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction. For his horror writing, Michael Dirda ranked him alongside Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. S. T. Joshi speculates that he may well be the greatest satirist America has ever produced, and in this regard can take his place with such figures as Juvenal, Swift, and Voltaire. His war stories influenced Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway and others, and he was considered an influential and feared literary critic. In recent decades, Bierce has gained wider respect as a fabulist and poet.