“Hash, x. There is no definition for this word - nobody knows what hash is.Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.”

American author, journalist, and poet

Ambrose Bierce was an American author, journalist, and poet. He was a prolific writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for his sharp literary style and his influence on American journalism and fiction. He wrote realist fiction, horror, satire, war stories, and poetry, and was also known as a forceful literary critic. His work later won broader recognition for its range, especially his fiction and poems, while his war writing influenced later writers such as Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway.