Ambrose Bierce

A celebrated journalist in his lifetime (the “Town Crier” of The San Francisco News Letter), Ambrose Bierce (1842–c.1914) was the author of sardonic, mischievous definitions of words that appeared in various San Francisco newspapers. Over several years these were compiled for a mock dictionary, originally published in 1906 as The Cynic’s Word Book and reissued in an expanded version as The Devil’s Dictionary in 1911.

Ambrose Bierce was a club guest when Mark Twain spoke for the first time at the club on 6th September 1872 on ‘Discovering Dr Livingstone’ (the “Immortal Dinner of 1872”).

Bierce introduced to the club the American poet, writer and journalist with German roots, Herman George Scheffauer (1876-1927). Scheffauer travelled to England in 1904 as the European correspondent for Town Talk, a society magazine. Bierce provided him with contact addresses in England, including that of the Whitefriars Club. On 15th July 1904 he wrote to him:

“So you are going to dwell with the degenerate Britishers a year. It is a grand scheme, but I hope you are not intending to live by literature, for I fear it can’t be done. […] I suppose there are still a few of the older generation of Londoners who may remember me——Geo. Byron Curtis, who I think is editor of the Standard; George R. Sims, author and playwright; possibly Austin Dobson, whom I didn’t know very well; and maybe some of the men of the Whitefriars’ Club if it is still in existence. I was, maybe still am, an honorary member, and when I was Secretary of the Bohemian Club I effected a mutual arrangement whereby members of the one club were entitled to the privilege of the other. Better see if that arrangement still holds, for it used to be a pleasant place to go. But that was before the deluge. The club had rooms at the old Mitre Tavern, of Dr. Johnson fame.”

Scheffauer did attend the Whitefriars dinners, and his name is recorded in two events in 1914 (27th March and 3rd April).