More and more the fame of Ambrose Bierce grows, not so much from his fantastic life and mysterious death, but from his haunting and unforgettable tales. His art is candidly inhuman, yet the clarity and perfection of his style and his dramatic fervor give these “terror tales” a secure place among the classic short stories of literature. The first two stories in this volume, “A Horseman in the Sky” and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” are generally considered Bierce’s best.