Ambrose Bierce developed caustic wit to a high art and became the literary arbiter of the West Coast. He arrived in 1868, just in time to assume the role of "Town Crier" from another great American humorist, Mark Twain. Even Bierce's employer, William Randolph Hearst, was not safe from his barbs. Hearst sent Bierce back east in 1896 to use his edged words against Collis B. Huntington and the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1913, Bierce tidied up his affairs and disappeared into revolutionary Mexico. It is not known where or how he died.