As we approach Halloween, there are few better reads than the works of Ambrose Bierce. His macabre stories ruled the late 19th century's horror and fantasy genres, as had Edgar Allan Poe's in that mid-century, when ghosts and the inexplicable were taken a bit more seriously than today.
Were their readers less sophisticated, or more tuned in, than those of the current era? Whichever they were, their taste in writers was above criticism. But exactly who were these tellers of strange tales themselves?
AMBROSE BIERCE, THE LAST STAND OF … attempts to clue in readers – and playgoers – as to the inner workings of one of American history's most mysterious and enigmatic minds!
No one really knows how Bierce spent his final night on earth, after he vanished beyond the Mexican border in 1913, in search of contact with revolutionary Pancho Villa. All communication with Bierce ceased in December of that year, and it could only be assumed that it was because of his demise on some northern Mexico battlefield, or that he was executed by federalé rifles.
Or did he escape?
What we know for certain is that the early 20th century's Master of the Literary Macabre – author of The Devil's Dictionary, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and The Damned Thing, among other other-worldly works, made good his promise never to lie beneath a tombstone – to this day, he doesn't.
Available in e-book and paperback, Rob Foster's 2-act play is just what you're looking for to sit by the eerie glow of the fire with, munching all the Halloween candy for yourself!
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