Saki
Entry updated 1 December 2024. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), Burma-born UK author and journalist in England from infancy; noted for the acerbic wit and grace of his fiction, almost all of it in short forms. In the late 1890s he began writing contemporary political sketches, inspired and illustrated by F Carruthers Gould, for The Westminster Gazette as by Saki, the name of the "Minister of Wine" in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, publishing these Parodies of Lewis Carroll as The Westminster Alice (coll 1902). When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns (1913) as by H H Munro ("Saki") is a trenchant Future War novel about a German Invasion, in which Britain's abject capitulation leads to the occupation of London; the tale was regarded by I F Clarke as the best of all such works.
Many tales of the weird and fantastic – ironic, witty, often featuring in the Edwardian manner young boys who wear the aspect of Pan, and sometimes savage enough to be thought of as examples of the conte cruel – are included in the following collections: Reginald (coll 1904), Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches (coll 1910), The Chronicles of Clovis (coll 1911) as by H H Munro ("Saki") – an assemblage including various Club Stories – Beasts and Super-Beasts (coll 1914), The Toys of Peace and Other Sketches, with Three Plays and Illustrations (coll 1919) as by H H Munro ("Saki") and The Square Egg and Other Sketches (coll 1924) as by H H Munro ("Saki"). The influence of Oscar Wilde is evident throughout his work; but so is that of Rudyard Kipling. Although over-age for active service in World War One, Munro enlisted in 1914; he was killed two years later. [JE/JC]
Hector Hugh Munro
born Akyab [now Sittwe], Burma: 18 December 1870
died Beaumont Hamel, France: 14 November 1916 [during the Battle of the Somme]
works
- The Unbearable Bassington (London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1912) as by H H Munro ("Saki") [hb/]
- When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns (London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1913) as by H H Munro ("Saki") [book is dated 1914: hb/uncredited]
collections
- The Westminster Alice (London: Westminster Gazette, 1902) [coll: illus/pb/F Carruthers Gould]
- Reginald (London: Methuen and Co, 1904) [coll: hb/]
- Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches (London: Methuen and Co, 1910) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Chronicles of Clovis (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1911) as by H H Munro ("Saki") [coll: hb/]
- Beasts and Super-Beasts (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1914) as by H H Munro ("Saki") [coll: hb/]
- The Toys of Peace and Other Sketches, with Three Plays and Illustrations (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1919) as by H H Munro ("Saki") [coll: hb/]
- The Square Egg and Other Sketches (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1924) as by H H Munro ("Saki") [coll: hb/]
- The Short Stories of Saki (H.H. Munro) (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1930) [omni of all the above collections except The Westminster Alice: with introduction by Christopher Morley and biographical memoir by Munro's sister Ethel M Munro: hb/]
- The Short Stories of Saki (H.H. Munro) (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1948) [omni: exp of the above with one added story "The East Wing", MS discovered 1946: hb/]
- The Short Stories of Saki (H.H. Munro) (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1930) [omni of all the above collections except The Westminster Alice: with introduction by Christopher Morley and biographical memoir by Munro's sister Ethel M Munro: hb/]
- The Unrest-Cure and Other Beastly Tales (London: Prion Books, 2001) [coll: introduction by Will Self: hb/Keenan]
- Sredni Vashtar: Sardonic Tales (Leyburn, North Yorkshire: Tartarus Press, 2008) [coll: hb/]
- The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of H. H. Munro (Driffield, East Yorkshire: Oakpast/Leonaur Ltd, 2022) [coll: hb/]
- A Little Red Book of Wit & Shudders (Benson, Maryland: Borderlands Press, 2023) [coll: edited by Stuart David Schiff: hb/]
links
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