Saki Biographical notes by Blake Wilfong

"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation."

Saki was the pseudonym of writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916). Born in Burma, but raised and educated in England, he began his writing career because poor health precluded more strenuous occupations. He borrowed the nom de plume "Saki" from a character in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Though he was primarily a journalist, Saki is remembered today for his fiction. Most of his tales were acerbic satires on the stuffy English upper class, but several contained elements of the fantastic: werewolves, ghosts, witches, etc. The novel When William Came (1913) is borderline SF because it correctly predicted World War I and English reactions to it. Of his more than 100 short stories, two qualify as genuine science fiction.

Despite his age, cynicism, and marginal health, Saki enlisted in the British army during World War I. Though offered commissions, he refused, believing he should learn to be a soldier before commanding them. He was killed by a sniper's bullet during the Battle of the Somme.