Tuesday, March the 9th, 2004
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It is, I think, reasonably well-known* that Ambrose Bierce vanished at the age of 71 (in 1913) on his way to the civil war in Mexico, never to be seen again. What I did not learn until the other day was that he was one of thirteen children, all of whom, at the whim of his father, were given names beginning with A. If any reader knows the names of his dozen siblings, please let me know.
* NOTE : I am careful to write “I think, reasonably well-known” as opposed to the magisterial “everybody knows”. A particularly splendid example of the latter appeared in the Guardian recently. A. S. Byatt wrote: “most people know [Sir Charles Sherrington's] description of the waking brain as ‘an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern…’” (my emphasis). If readers have favourite examples of such absurd pomposity, please send them in.