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Dark, Sidney

(1872-1947) UK journalist, editor and author of much fiction and nonfiction; his influence as a political commentator waned in the 1930s due to his early anti-fascism, and his excoriation of anti-Semitism as a moral and intellectual disease incited by governments looking for scapegoats. The Man Who Would Not Be King: Being the Adventures of one Fenimore Slavington, who was neither Born Great nor Achieved Greatness, but had Greatness Thrust Upon him Much to his own Discomfort and the Discomfort of Many Others (1913) – which takes its title from Rudyard Kipling's Satire on the delusions of the imperialist mind, "The Man Who Would Be King" (in The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Eerie Tales, coll 1888) – describes the responses of a man thrust into overlordship of a Utopian manufacturing plant whose employees must live in a model community; his "kingship" proves difficult to abandon. [JC]

Sidney Ernest Dark

born London: 14 January 1872

died Reading, Buckinghamshire: 11 October 1947

works

• The Man Who Would Not Be King: Being the Adventures of one Fenimore Slavington, who was neither Born Great nor Achieved Greatness, but had Greatness Thrust Upon him Much to his own Discomfort and the Discomfort of Many Others (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1913) [hb/]

links

• Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 17:41 pm on 8 February 2025.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/dark_sidney>