Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I know that the famous quatrain was published in Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, but I've also seen it stated that he covered The Borden Trial, or at least wrote about it. I've never found anything, however - any of you know anything about this supposed confluence of Bierce and Borden?

I have no idea, but I suppose it's possible. I believe he was a journalist for San Fransisco newspapers at the time of the trial. I've read several of his civil war stories and have visited the Kennesaw (Georgia) Nat'l. Battlefield park where he was seriously wounded in 1864.

I haven't found anything on him that says he wrote on Lizze, but he was well thought of.

Something interesting though that I found out on him. I October of 1913 Bierce, then in his 70's departed Washington DC for a tour of his old Civil War Battlefields(he was a major).

By December, apparantly, he had made it to Texas and Louisana, wrote a literary friend and then dissappeared. His remains were never found.

Kind of wierd. Fits in with the Lizzie mystrey. LOL!

Bierce must have been an interesting guy. We read something he wrote when I was in high school, but I can't remember what. My knowledge of Bierce is very limited, but I was alway left with the impression that he was a nasty guy. Not only was he known as a bad boy, I would not doubt that he was a homophobe. Perhaps the reason why his wife ran around on him.

For some reason he took a dislike for Oscar Wilde and made it plain that he had no use for him, going as far as to refer to him as a "he hen". (Perhaps Wilde shunned his advances......who knows.)

I love Wilde. Oscar had the habit of voicing those things that we only dare think. Who doesn't like a guy that said: "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination"

He could have been talking about Andrew Borden.

mbhenty, I'm guessing you mean "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It's Bierce's most widely anthologized story.

I too adore Oscar Wilde--a true genius.

The Lizzie mystery intrigues me because of the contradiction between someone clever enough to hide evidence but careless enough to trip up during an inquest. Sometimes I think she must be innocent because guilty person would have lied better in court. On the other hand, the idea that she was seized with such a blind rage that she lost her sanity temporarily and then convinced herself she didn't do it makes sense, too.