"Ambrose Bierce once said that an experienced writer 'must be a sinner and in turn a saint, a hero, a wretch.' In a feverish lifetime, turbulent with rampant enmities and equally rampant friendships, he was looked upon as all of those, and he still is, long after vanishing in Mexico. Following the Bierce trail, often vague and sometimes lost, from Warsaw to San Francisco, I have been entertained by the enthusiasm of pro-Bierceans, by the grumpy distaste of antis, and by the blank ignorance of many who never heard of the man. The sharp facets of a character both positive and negative, but never neutral, are a challenge to a biographer. If not particularly important as a writer, he is stimulating as a person. Hence this most recent of many attempts to interpret a controversial figure."--Page vii.