Bierce-The Devil's Dictionary

Born in Ohio in 1842 journalist short-story writer and critic Ambrose Bierce developed into one of this country's most celebrated and cynical wits — a merciless American Swift whose literary barbs were aimed at folly self-delusion politics business religion literature and the arts. In this splendid dictionary of epigrams essays verses and vignettes you'll find over 1000 pointed definitions e.g. Congratulation (The civility of envy) Coward (One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs) and Historian (A broad-gauge gossip). Anyone who likes to laugh will love The Devil's Dictionary. Anyone looking for a bon mot to enliven their next speech paper or conversation will have a field day thumbing through what H. L. Mencken called some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language.