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sonal campaign vehicle in his unsuc- ters political was monumental. cessful bid for a seat in Congress. He Kriebel documents Purdue’s accom- also invested in a gold mine, as well plishments and portrays his person- as an early Indiana railroad, and he ality as well. owned a large farm near West For the student of Indiana histo- Lebanon. He established the Purdue ry, The Midas of the Wabash is must Rifles, a military unit that saw Civil reading. To ignore John Purdue’s life War action under a 100-day commit- is to miss an essential chapter of ment. Hoosier history. Following the end of the war and his temporary residency in New York ROBERTW. TOPPINGis a retired Pur- City, where he bought pork to sell to due staff member and alumnus, and the Union military forces, he returned is the author of three published books to Lafayette, where a Purdue-for-Con- about Purdue University. He is also a gress movement sprang to life. Per- former newspaperman in Indiana and suaded by his friends, Purdue ran for Michigan. Congress, though his naivete in mat-

Arnbrose Bierce Tales of Soldiers and Civilians Edited by Donald T. Blume (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2004. Pp. xxxii, 222. Appendix, notes. Clothbound, $30.00; paperbound, $20.00.) A Much Misunderstood Man Selected Letters of Arnbrose Bierce Edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003. Pp. xxvi, 258. Notes, bibliography, index. $74.95.)

American writer Ambrose Bierce rience earned him fifteen commen- holds particular interest for students dations and, arguably, a career. After of Indiana history because, while he the war he became a journalist and was born in Ohio, he was living in made his reputation, in part, by writ- Elkhart, Indiana, when the Civil War ing disagreeably, but honestly, about broke out. He joined the 9th Indiana his experiences as a soldier and as a Volunteer Infantry and saw action in civilian. Bierce was one of the few many of the major battles of the American writers to have served in war-Chickamauga, Pickett’s Mill, active combat, and he was one of an Missionary Ridge, Shiloh. His expe- even smaller number who refused to 288 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

glorify, romanticize, or in any way (for a total of 22), and the 1909 ver- extol what had been a bloody, often sion contained 26, the fact that Blume barbaric war. has reverted to the original 19 is com- It was after he was snapped up by mendable. Blume’s edition also sur- William Randolph Hearst to be a reg- passes the 2000 edition, published by ular columnist for the San Francisco Penguin Classics, by including an Examiner that Bierce’s reputation for original story that was excluded in moralistic invective and political the latter. All to the good. Where satire became legendary. While his Blume will lose the general reader- greatest legacy remains his first-hand ship, however, is in his heroic but accounts of the horrors of war-hor- excruciating attention to the smallest rors so grievous that they meld into details of grammar and punctuation. tales of the supernatural-he is today For example, “Again seeking to most remembered for a single short follow Bierce’s intentions, many more story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek colons appear in this edition than in Bridge” that continues to appear in the 1892 and later collections” literary anthologies, including most (p. xxviii). recently Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, But then, the general reader is not edited by Donald Blume (2004). Blume’s intended audience. In his Readers at all familiar with Bierce introduction he comments in detail might wonder why another publica- upon Bierce’s “artfully constructed tion of these particular tales is neces- plots that function on two different sary. A collection of this name has levels for two different groups of read- been published several times, includ- ers, which we can denote the ing a 2000 edition that included other informed and the uninformed.” Pre- stones. The answer lies almost exclu- sumably, those in the latter category sively in Blume’s introduction. The will miss the nuances of this new col- editor writes of his efforts in reassem- lection. And so, although Blume’s bling these nineteen tales that “In the introduction is useful to serious stu- preparation of this edition, for each dents of Bierce, this volume has a lim- story six physical texts were consid- ited audience, and whether it fills any ered: the original newspaper text, the “void in American literature,” as the edited paste-up copytext to the 1892 cover claims, is debatable. text, the 1892 text, the 1898 text, the Similarly, the casual reader will edited copytext to the 1909 text, and find little of interest in A Much Mis- the 1909 text.” Blume feels that he understood Man, Selected Letters of has made a thorough study of Bierce’s Ambrose Bierce. Editors S. T. Joshi and intentions and has thus provided David E. Schultz have selected slight- readers with the definitive version of ly more than 200 letters from among the original collection. Given that the Bierce’s prodigious correspondence. 1898 version included extra stories The problem is that, while the editors REVIEWS 289

have provided voluminous notes that most readers will find the subject make the otherwise indecipherable matter of the letters to be rather pro- letters decipherable, they are not saic. As the editors themselves admit, made entertaining or informative for “it is disappointing how infrequent- any but the most ardent student of a ly Bierce discusses his fiction in his brief period in San Francisco literary letters.” Given that Bierce is best history. The letters in this collection known, and loved, for his short fic- address and/or discuss, almost exclu- tion, this is indeed problematic. How- sively, minor regional authors such as ever, someone out there knows and George Sterling, Charles Warren Stod- cares about the minutiae of San Fran- dard, and Herman Scheffauer. While cisco letters at the turn of the centu- there are half a dozen or so letters ry. This is hisher book. addressed to the likes of William Ran- dolph Hearst and H. L. Mencken, they JEANETTEVANAUSDALL is author of do not suffice to interest any but the Pride and Protest: The Novel in Indiana most limited audience. Furthermore, (2000).

Notre Dame vs. the Klan How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan By Todd Tucker (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2004. Pp. xxiii, 261. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95.)

The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s national magazines, has put together attained its greatest strength in Indi- an engaging account of this South ana, but the state was relatively free Bend “riot.” He succeeds in placing of the violence that sometimes the event in a broad framework that accompanied the rise of the Invisible includes the origins and development Empire elsewhere. The rowdy con- of both the Klan and Notre Dame. He frontation that took place between provides absorbing biographical robed Klansmen attending a tristate sketches of Notre Dame founder gathering in South Bend and aroused Father Edward Sorin; Father Matthew Notre Dame students was an excep- Walsh, Notre Dame president at the tion. The skirmishes that occurred on time of the disturbances; the univer- May 17 and 19, 1924, resulted in a sity’s legendary football coach Knute few minor injuries and arrests but a Rockne; and David C. Stephenson, large number of bruised egos on both the infamous Grand Dragon whose sides. unbridled lust culminated with the Todd Tucker, a professional writer death of Madge Oberholtzer, leading whose work has appeared in several to his homicide conviction and the