Saki

Saki is the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916), a British writer celebrated for witty, often biting short stories that satirize Edwardian manners and social pretensions. Born in Akyab, Burma, to a British colonial family, Munro published extensively in periodicals under the pseudonym Saki, allowing him to explore social foibles with sharp, sometimes macabre humor.

His best-known collections include The Chronicles of Clovis (1911) and Beasts and Super-Beasts (1914). He also produced a large body of stories featuring recurring characters such as Reginald and Clovis, alongside standalone pieces. Among his most famous individual stories are The Open Window and Sredni Vashtar, both noted for brisk narration, clever twists, and a mordant wit that could pivot from light satire to darker themes in a sentence.

Munro pursued a career in journalism and fiction in London before the outbreak of World War I. He served in the British Army and was killed in action in 1916 during the Somme offensive. Although his literary career was brief, Saki’s precise prose, irony, and willingness to undercut social pretensions helped shape early 20th-century short fiction and continued to influence humor writers and satirists after his death. His stories remain widely read and anthologized for their craft, wit, and persistent edge.