A celebrated journalist in his lifetime, Ambrose Bierce's began circulating his own sardonic, mischievous definitions of words in his various columns for San Francisco newspapers. Over several years these were then compiled and expanded into entries for a mock dictionary originally published as The Cynic's Word Book.

One of the most popular satirical works of American literature, The Devil's Dictionary – here published in its most complete 1911 version – brilliantly lays bare the hypocrisies of American society and displays a razor-sharp wit to rival that of Bierce's contemporary Mark Twain.