Short Story #336: Why I Am Not Editing "The Stinger" by Ambrose Bierce

Title:  Why I Am Not Editing "The Stinger"

Author: Ambrose Bierce

Summary

Book cover: Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce

This story is a series of letters back and forth with Peter Pitchin, the editor of "The Stinger."  They begin initially with the proprietor who requests the presence of Pitchin to answer a man who wants to know who wrote an article about Mr. Muskler.  The editor answers vaguely each time the proprietor asks about it and avoids his insistence that the editor come down to the printing house (as opposed to the office).  They go back and forth via messenger until the next day when the bookkeeper takes up the communication since the proprietor is nowhere to be found.  The following day, the foreman is contacting Pitchin explaining that Muskler is still present.  By the end of the week, the proprietor has returned but finds no one in the office and asks where is everyone and why has Muskler set up a shop across the street or what appears to be a gunsmith show since he has a shotgun.  Pitchin replies that business is taking him away but he hopes that someone will get Muskler to buy ads in the newspaper.


Reflection

Another yarn of Bierce's.  Enjoyable and amusing but nothing that is too interesting or new compared with his other material.  

Short Story #336 out of 365
Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars)
Date Read: 11/01/2014
Source:  The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce, compiled by Ernest Jerome Hopkins.  Bison Books, 1984.  The full works of Ambrose Bierce, including this story can be found here on Archive.org.

For a full listing of all the short stories in this series, check out the category 365 Short Stories a year.



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