Staff Pick: Shadows of Blue & Gray

A tidy and well-ordered volume that collects nearly 40 Civil War short stories, memoirs, and reminiscences by the celebrated 19th-century writer. Known today primarily as a satirist, Bierce (1842-1914?) wrote some of the earliest and best realist fiction in the US. The product of a stern and God-fearing Ohio home, he enlisted with the Indiana Volunteers in 1861 and saw action in some of the fiercest battles of the war. Afterwards he settled into life as a journalist and editor and made a considerable success at both. Although some of the pieces here (especially "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge") have retained their popularity down the years, most are long-forgotten resurrections, and some (like "A Sole Survivor," about the fates of several of Bierce's army comrades, all of whom died) were literally discovered in the corner of a library basement, uncatalogued and unknown.
Copyright Kirkus 2002 Kirkus/BPI Communications.