BIERCE, Ambrose (1842 - ca 1914?). The Collected Works. New York & Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1909-1912.

12 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles, frontispiece portrait of Bierce reproduced from a lithograph by F. Soule Campbell, decorated title-pages designed by Frederick Polley. Publisher's tan morocco elaborately decorated in blind and gilt, upper cover gilt with central cartouche surrounding the author's initials, smooth spines decorated in blind and gilt, edges gilt, turn-ins gilt with maroon moiré silk doublures and endpapers, designed by Frederick Polley with his initials in blind on the upper covers. Provenance: J.J. Weiserh, Esq. (signature on the compliments page).

FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 19 of 250 sets of the "Deluxe Autograph Edition," SIGNED BY BIERCE on the compliments page in vol. I. Bierce, a prolific American author and Civil War veteran, was known for his biting political writing and his mysterious disappearance in 1914, 2 years after volume XII of The Collected Works was published. "There is something terribly beautiful and fitting in the manner of the passing of Ambrose Bierce... Soldier-fighter and soldier-writer. Scotson Clark's well-known caricature of Bierce dragging a pen from a scabbard is the undying portrait of the man" (Starrett). His work has been adapted, referenced, or fictionalized in many forms including comic books, films, novels, plays, and television shows. BAL 1129; Kunitz and Haycraft, American Authors, pp. 75-77; Vincent Starrett, Ambrose Bierce (1920), pp. 49-50.

Property from the Collection of Robert S. Brown, Cincinnati, Ohio

BIERCE, Ambrose (1842 - ca 1914?). The Collected Works. New York & Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1909-1912.