The University of Cincinnati collection of Ambrose Bierce letters consists of fifty-nine items sent to Myles Walsh and donated by Walsh to the University of Cincinnati after World War II. Walsh’s sister Elizabeth (Lily) was a protégé of Bierce and during her illness – and after her death – in young adulthood, the two men began writing to each other about everyday matters as well as Bierce’s journalism and fiction. These items are unique and revelatory in the biographical details they provide on a major author’s life. Typically, the letters are four pages each, a.l.s., measuring 5" x 8" and totaling approximately 240 pages. Other major holdings of Bierce correspondence can be found at Stanford University, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of Virginia, with other letters held at a few other institutions.
In digitizing these letters, the University of Cincinnati makes them widely available for literary scholarship. Such a project includes accompanying transcriptions, links to the holdings of universities and scholarly websites, open acceptance of scholarly annotation, and the possibility of collaborative digitization with other repositories of Bierce material.
The images included in this collection are from editions of Catlin's works held in the Yale Collection of Western Americana, the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County and the Archives & Rare Books Library, University of Cincinnati.