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We need to document the claim that Saki was an anti-Semite; this is a damaging charge and should not be made without a clear lead back to the evidence. -- seglea 07:02, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
21:19, 19 September 2006 (UTC)The comments about Chesterton seem unneccessarily harsh. The Anti-Semitism portion of the Chesterton contradicts the impression that I get of Chesterton from the Saki article.
I don't know if Saki would have counted as an anti-Semite in his own time and context. His stories did contain occasional throw-away lines that would not be acceptable today; were he writing in 2004, I doubt if he would include them. In addition, there is one short story, "The Unrest Cure", that is problematic. I shall attempt to deal with this in my updates to the wiki article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BrainyBabe ( talk • contribs) 15:59, 16 November 2004.
Ok, first let me say that I'm Jewish, and living in Europe, in probably the third-most anti-semitic country here. And yes it worries me.
That said, seeing anti-semitism everywhere leads only to paranoia and madness. Seeing misogyny everywhere is the same.
H.H. Munro was writing in Edwardian England, for chrissakes. The entire society was misogynistic (they were using social pressure and ridicule to prevent suffragettes from achieving votes for women), and pretty much all of Europe was unabashedly anti-semitic. The English were also anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu, and pretty much anti-anything else that wasn't Church of England.
The Unrest Cure is my favorite Saki story, and he clearly considers the "killing of the Jews" to be a patently ridiculous idea. It's intended to crack you up laughing, and it does. The two Jews he does mention in the story as potential victims are both presented as respectable pillars of the community, and the prospect of having "The Bishop and Colonel Alberti" plotting their demise in the drawing room is clearly intended to upset people in the story, to be "a blot on the 20th Century", not to generate approval.
Saki's humor is viciously satirical, but it tends to be pro-nature, pro-animal, and anti-establishment. (And anti-aunt.) In no way is it partisan to any religion or, for that matter, gender. Those who cry "Wolf" every time someone mentions a Jew or a Suffragette are simply damaging the cause for those on alert against real anti-semitism and misogyny. -- Steverapaport 10:04, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
This page gives away the endings of a number of Saki's stories, and I have therefore added the spoiler warning template. I know they're all fairly well known, but allowances should be made for those who have not yet had the pleasure. -- Csernica 00:14, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
BrainyBabe 22:02, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I don't know if this is a bug restricted to this article or others too, but clicking "Older revision" from http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Saki&direction=prev&oldid=284217 (which has date 2001-11-07 12:37:51) takes me to http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Saki&direction=prev&oldid=284216 (which has date 2002-03-26 18:25:21). Further, the former one above (2001-11-07 12:37:51) is the oldest date I can find, but its edit summary looks like it's an edit/revert of an older article. What is the matter? Shreevatsa 10:28, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
"Basically Saki is like Charles Dickens......" I don't think this line should remain, or should at least be heavily qualified. It is a highly subjective opinion; which I for one don't share. I think Saki and Dickens' styles are very different. I personally think Saki is like a more bitter and twisted version of Wilde......but that's my opinion and I wouldn't present it as fact. -B.G. 13/10/05
i just read the article on this guy and if you ask me he`s the british mark twain who agrees with me.
I'm with DavidWBrooks: Ever since I was introduced to Saki as a teenager in the early 60s I've felt he was Wilde with a mean streak (a delightful mean streak, I might add). Don G Taylor ( talk) 23:56, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
At present she's rather in a Balkan state of mind about the treatment of the Jews in Roumania. Personally, I think the Jews have estimable qualities; they're so kind to their poor- and to our rich.
- from Reginald on Worries, so you could ascribe it to Reginald rather than Saki himself. There's another story with a nasty tone- A Touch of Realism.
I don't think Saki was very antisemitic [nor was Buchan, actually- in The Three Hostages the villain is an archetypal "jew out to conquer the world", with Svengaliesque hypnotic powers except that he is a CofE conservative MP] and his attitude to the jews of eastern Europe- where jews faced real persecution- was sympathetic in his journalism. However, there is a long tradition in English literature of antisemitism as a convention- often an unthinking convention. Even radicals like Bage and Peacock were casually antisemitic in their books. I think Saki- like other writers then- assumed the same attitudes. Compare Belloc and Chesterton who made definite attempts to import European politico-religious antisemitism to Britain to see the difference in attitudes and assumptions. - found your remarks while I was looking up refs for another site discussing Saki's antisemitism, so what I wrote there seems appropriate. Another interesting book involving Edwardian antisemitism is Israel Rank by Roy Horniman, the basis for Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Roger Allen 08:09, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
Tidied and amended a little. Roger Allen 18:43, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Why is there even mention that H. H. Munro MAY have been gay (my emphasis?) One could add that to almost ANY article about a male on Wikipedia. Why is it relevant? There seems to be a concerted effort (by the LGBT community??) to include SOME mention in Wikipedia of a person's sexuality, whenever the opportunity arises. That is hardly "neutral." ExpatSalopian ( talk) 19:33, 29 April 2015 (UTC) By the way, Dominic Hibberd's essay cited gives no such indication. I suggest that the paragraph be removed. (I could do it myself, of course.) ExpatSalopian ( talk) 20:13, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
I'd just like to put in a good word for this little-known story, the first of six uncollected ones, a link to which is included at the end of the article. I think this is a neglected masterpiece (unlike the other five). It is exquisitely poised between tragedy and comedy, with a most moving resolution in favor of I won't tell you which.
38.117.238.82 07:23, 13 December 2006 (UTC) now known as Kostaki mou 00:36, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I welcome the addition of new material by an anonymous (probably new?) editor, and encourage this person to create an account. In addition to various small changes, I have stripped out the phrases praising the works added to the reference section (e.g. "A very useful and entertaining biography"), while retaining the works themselves. We can make value judgements on Saki's stories -- that they are witty or cynical or whatever -- only because we are reflecting the opinion of published commentators. Anything else would be original research, which Wikipedia avoids. We cannot write our own value judgements about Saki's work, or works about him. Again, thank you anonymous person for your contributions. BrainyBabe 09:31, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I have reinserted some remarks about 'When William Came" which I first contributed on July 7 and which have been deleted. I intended only to expand the entry in a helpful fashion, and I'm not quite sure why anyone imagines it is their business simply to wipe them out. Peter Hitchens, signed in as Clockback 16:17, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
See what I mean about self-regarding, and bureaucratic? Actually, encyclopaedias seek to inform their readers and any entry about an author is bound to be, to some extent, a celebration in both senses of the word. As to how one can have or express a 'neutral point of view' about a novel, I'm not entirely sure. The concept is suspect anyway, but on a novel, even more so. Neutral between what and what, pray? Perhaps we should all get together to compose a short story, in the style of the late Mr Munro, about an encyclopaedia compiler who has a secret life as a police officer, or the other way round. Clockback 12:49, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Someone claimed that this novel, published in 1911 by Hector Munro, is by Saki. There are very good reasons to doubt this claim. The main bases for it are an allegation by the aged and famously untruthful Montague Summers in The Galanty Show and an article in the TLS in 2003 pointing out trivial similarites. Against it are the following facts: the remarkable differences in subject matter and style between it and Saki's own books, in 1911 Saki was publishing as often as ever, so had little time to write another otherwise unknown book, when he did publish under his own name it was as H. H. Munro or as Hector Hugh Munro, but never by his frst name alone, and the fact that no-one who knew or claimed to know Saki but Summers, over thirty years after Saki's death, ever suggested that he wrote it. Until there is more reliable evidence we should not consider this one of Saki's own books. Roger Allen ( talk) 23:53, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
I've added a couple of tags and cleaned up some of the POV, but a lot remains. The bane of Wikipedia is essays and school papers posted as articles.
Here's the tag about literary criticism:
"Do not write articles that present your own original theories, opinions, or insights, even if you can support them by reference to accepted work." This is not a guideline but official POLICY. It means that it is NOT all right to hunt for someone else who shares your interpretation, then cite them as a reference. The "Controversy section," beginning with the weasel words "Some believe," really should be completely deleted. Please, stick only to fact. — J M Rice ( talk) 16:06, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
The "European watering holes" were mot drinking establishments but- literally- watering holes where people bathed in mineral waters at therapeutic baths. I've changed the term to spas to make misunderstanding impossible- I hope. I've also restored my remark about Ethel Munro- one thing everyone who wrote about Saki from personal experience remarks on is Ethel's personaliy, Saki's friendship with her and how surprising that was and her toleration and love of her brother so it isn't POV. —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Roger Allen (
talk •
contribs) 17:13, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I removed the line
"However, Saki's anti-semitism is not obsessive and all-pervading in the way of such contemporaries as Belloc or Chesterton."
because it makes no sense unless he was anti-semitic. Even if we make a really extreme effort to be broad-minded and take this slander seriously it has to be treated as something "controversial" not something that is fact.
I also cleaned up the part about alleged "misogyny" a little bit trying to keep the core idea without the bizarre speculation about "childless women". His aunt was crazy and abusive and he hated her in a way that comes out often in his writing. He hated her because she was abusive to him, not because he cared about whether or not she had children of her own.
As for the anti-semitism, if anyone seriously cares about this I would suggest that you read "The Unrest Cure" since it's actually about anti-semitism. If he was going to let slip anything anti-semitic it would be there. You must keep in mind two things: 1) In polite upper-middle-class England in the 1900s pogroms were a thing of the past. Saki's readers did not know that the holocaust would happen 40 years later. They only knew that violence against Jews had been decreasing since long before they were born. 2) Many of Saki's stories juxtaposed middle-class England with the more chaotic and violent circumstances of places he had been to like Burma, India, the Balkans, or the Middle East. "The Unrest Cure" follows this formula. The pogrom is something extremely violent that was happening at the time but far away from the tranquil English setting that Saki inserts it into. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abu America ( talk • contribs) 10:06, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
I hadn't meant to offend or cause controversy when I edited out this reference, but it is based on a misreading of Saki's story "Adrian". The context of the reference in the story makes it clear that the East End slum of Whitechapel, adjoining the equally insalubrious Bethnal Green (mentioned in the previous sentence)is what is meant, rather than the West End's postal district. This is an great example of Saki's sarcasm. Adrian's residence is not in an auspicious location at all, and 'roomlet' means just that; it's not at all like the comfortable bachelor lodgings in which Munro lived. "Adrian" is about the merry destruction a clever boy from the London slums wreaks when unknowingly taken up by members of Edwardian moneyed society, and the whole plot hinges on their ignorance of his origins and background (note how cleverly the author allows Lucas Croyden to almost let slip Adrian's mother's residence in Bethnal Green, but then check himself just in time - it sets up the punch line of the story.) Saki's characters and bright young men (Reginald,Clovis and their ilk) often do have lives, backgrounds, and residences illustrative of his own life, but the title character in "Adrian" is not among that group, and nothing could be further from Munro's own living situation or millieu. Again, I had no desire to offend (I'm new to this), but I'm really pretty sure about this one. 66.92.65.91 ( talk) 20:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
References
Do we know for a fact how Saki is to be pronounced? For context, A. A. Milne was confused too:
It may have been my uncertainty (which still persists) whether he called himself Sayki, Sahki or Sakki which made me thus ungenerous of his name
--Introduction, The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki, 1911
Do we have some other source? Ijon ( talk) 20:54, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
'By his marriage to Mary Frances Mercer (1843–1872), the daughter of Rear Admiral Samuel Mercer.' That's the set-up - where's the payoff? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.98.187.218 ( talk) 03:19, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
“Some confusion having arisen owing to the similarity of names, Mr. Hector H. Munro (who usually writes under the pen-name of ‘Saki’) asks us to state that he is not the author of the novel ‘Mrs. Elmsley,’ by Mr. Hector Munro, published by Messrs. Constable and Co.” ― ‘Notice in the Westminster Gazette, Monday 3 April 1911, p. 4.’
https://www.annotated-saki.info/
SAKI LIFE IN ARMY 2409:4064:4D06:B20F:0:0:3448:630F ( talk) 14:08, 18 December 2021 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Saki article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
We need to document the claim that Saki was an anti-Semite; this is a damaging charge and should not be made without a clear lead back to the evidence. -- seglea 07:02, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
21:19, 19 September 2006 (UTC)The comments about Chesterton seem unneccessarily harsh. The Anti-Semitism portion of the Chesterton contradicts the impression that I get of Chesterton from the Saki article.
I don't know if Saki would have counted as an anti-Semite in his own time and context. His stories did contain occasional throw-away lines that would not be acceptable today; were he writing in 2004, I doubt if he would include them. In addition, there is one short story, "The Unrest Cure", that is problematic. I shall attempt to deal with this in my updates to the wiki article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BrainyBabe ( talk • contribs) 15:59, 16 November 2004.
Ok, first let me say that I'm Jewish, and living in Europe, in probably the third-most anti-semitic country here. And yes it worries me.
That said, seeing anti-semitism everywhere leads only to paranoia and madness. Seeing misogyny everywhere is the same.
H.H. Munro was writing in Edwardian England, for chrissakes. The entire society was misogynistic (they were using social pressure and ridicule to prevent suffragettes from achieving votes for women), and pretty much all of Europe was unabashedly anti-semitic. The English were also anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu, and pretty much anti-anything else that wasn't Church of England.
The Unrest Cure is my favorite Saki story, and he clearly considers the "killing of the Jews" to be a patently ridiculous idea. It's intended to crack you up laughing, and it does. The two Jews he does mention in the story as potential victims are both presented as respectable pillars of the community, and the prospect of having "The Bishop and Colonel Alberti" plotting their demise in the drawing room is clearly intended to upset people in the story, to be "a blot on the 20th Century", not to generate approval.
Saki's humor is viciously satirical, but it tends to be pro-nature, pro-animal, and anti-establishment. (And anti-aunt.) In no way is it partisan to any religion or, for that matter, gender. Those who cry "Wolf" every time someone mentions a Jew or a Suffragette are simply damaging the cause for those on alert against real anti-semitism and misogyny. -- Steverapaport 10:04, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
This page gives away the endings of a number of Saki's stories, and I have therefore added the spoiler warning template. I know they're all fairly well known, but allowances should be made for those who have not yet had the pleasure. -- Csernica 00:14, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
BrainyBabe 22:02, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I don't know if this is a bug restricted to this article or others too, but clicking "Older revision" from http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Saki&direction=prev&oldid=284217 (which has date 2001-11-07 12:37:51) takes me to http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Saki&direction=prev&oldid=284216 (which has date 2002-03-26 18:25:21). Further, the former one above (2001-11-07 12:37:51) is the oldest date I can find, but its edit summary looks like it's an edit/revert of an older article. What is the matter? Shreevatsa 10:28, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
"Basically Saki is like Charles Dickens......" I don't think this line should remain, or should at least be heavily qualified. It is a highly subjective opinion; which I for one don't share. I think Saki and Dickens' styles are very different. I personally think Saki is like a more bitter and twisted version of Wilde......but that's my opinion and I wouldn't present it as fact. -B.G. 13/10/05
i just read the article on this guy and if you ask me he`s the british mark twain who agrees with me.
I'm with DavidWBrooks: Ever since I was introduced to Saki as a teenager in the early 60s I've felt he was Wilde with a mean streak (a delightful mean streak, I might add). Don G Taylor ( talk) 23:56, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
At present she's rather in a Balkan state of mind about the treatment of the Jews in Roumania. Personally, I think the Jews have estimable qualities; they're so kind to their poor- and to our rich.
- from Reginald on Worries, so you could ascribe it to Reginald rather than Saki himself. There's another story with a nasty tone- A Touch of Realism.
I don't think Saki was very antisemitic [nor was Buchan, actually- in The Three Hostages the villain is an archetypal "jew out to conquer the world", with Svengaliesque hypnotic powers except that he is a CofE conservative MP] and his attitude to the jews of eastern Europe- where jews faced real persecution- was sympathetic in his journalism. However, there is a long tradition in English literature of antisemitism as a convention- often an unthinking convention. Even radicals like Bage and Peacock were casually antisemitic in their books. I think Saki- like other writers then- assumed the same attitudes. Compare Belloc and Chesterton who made definite attempts to import European politico-religious antisemitism to Britain to see the difference in attitudes and assumptions. - found your remarks while I was looking up refs for another site discussing Saki's antisemitism, so what I wrote there seems appropriate. Another interesting book involving Edwardian antisemitism is Israel Rank by Roy Horniman, the basis for Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Roger Allen 08:09, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
Tidied and amended a little. Roger Allen 18:43, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Why is there even mention that H. H. Munro MAY have been gay (my emphasis?) One could add that to almost ANY article about a male on Wikipedia. Why is it relevant? There seems to be a concerted effort (by the LGBT community??) to include SOME mention in Wikipedia of a person's sexuality, whenever the opportunity arises. That is hardly "neutral." ExpatSalopian ( talk) 19:33, 29 April 2015 (UTC) By the way, Dominic Hibberd's essay cited gives no such indication. I suggest that the paragraph be removed. (I could do it myself, of course.) ExpatSalopian ( talk) 20:13, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
I'd just like to put in a good word for this little-known story, the first of six uncollected ones, a link to which is included at the end of the article. I think this is a neglected masterpiece (unlike the other five). It is exquisitely poised between tragedy and comedy, with a most moving resolution in favor of I won't tell you which.
38.117.238.82 07:23, 13 December 2006 (UTC) now known as Kostaki mou 00:36, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I welcome the addition of new material by an anonymous (probably new?) editor, and encourage this person to create an account. In addition to various small changes, I have stripped out the phrases praising the works added to the reference section (e.g. "A very useful and entertaining biography"), while retaining the works themselves. We can make value judgements on Saki's stories -- that they are witty or cynical or whatever -- only because we are reflecting the opinion of published commentators. Anything else would be original research, which Wikipedia avoids. We cannot write our own value judgements about Saki's work, or works about him. Again, thank you anonymous person for your contributions. BrainyBabe 09:31, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I have reinserted some remarks about 'When William Came" which I first contributed on July 7 and which have been deleted. I intended only to expand the entry in a helpful fashion, and I'm not quite sure why anyone imagines it is their business simply to wipe them out. Peter Hitchens, signed in as Clockback 16:17, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
See what I mean about self-regarding, and bureaucratic? Actually, encyclopaedias seek to inform their readers and any entry about an author is bound to be, to some extent, a celebration in both senses of the word. As to how one can have or express a 'neutral point of view' about a novel, I'm not entirely sure. The concept is suspect anyway, but on a novel, even more so. Neutral between what and what, pray? Perhaps we should all get together to compose a short story, in the style of the late Mr Munro, about an encyclopaedia compiler who has a secret life as a police officer, or the other way round. Clockback 12:49, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Someone claimed that this novel, published in 1911 by Hector Munro, is by Saki. There are very good reasons to doubt this claim. The main bases for it are an allegation by the aged and famously untruthful Montague Summers in The Galanty Show and an article in the TLS in 2003 pointing out trivial similarites. Against it are the following facts: the remarkable differences in subject matter and style between it and Saki's own books, in 1911 Saki was publishing as often as ever, so had little time to write another otherwise unknown book, when he did publish under his own name it was as H. H. Munro or as Hector Hugh Munro, but never by his frst name alone, and the fact that no-one who knew or claimed to know Saki but Summers, over thirty years after Saki's death, ever suggested that he wrote it. Until there is more reliable evidence we should not consider this one of Saki's own books. Roger Allen ( talk) 23:53, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
I've added a couple of tags and cleaned up some of the POV, but a lot remains. The bane of Wikipedia is essays and school papers posted as articles.
Here's the tag about literary criticism:
"Do not write articles that present your own original theories, opinions, or insights, even if you can support them by reference to accepted work." This is not a guideline but official POLICY. It means that it is NOT all right to hunt for someone else who shares your interpretation, then cite them as a reference. The "Controversy section," beginning with the weasel words "Some believe," really should be completely deleted. Please, stick only to fact. — J M Rice ( talk) 16:06, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
The "European watering holes" were mot drinking establishments but- literally- watering holes where people bathed in mineral waters at therapeutic baths. I've changed the term to spas to make misunderstanding impossible- I hope. I've also restored my remark about Ethel Munro- one thing everyone who wrote about Saki from personal experience remarks on is Ethel's personaliy, Saki's friendship with her and how surprising that was and her toleration and love of her brother so it isn't POV. —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Roger Allen (
talk •
contribs) 17:13, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I removed the line
"However, Saki's anti-semitism is not obsessive and all-pervading in the way of such contemporaries as Belloc or Chesterton."
because it makes no sense unless he was anti-semitic. Even if we make a really extreme effort to be broad-minded and take this slander seriously it has to be treated as something "controversial" not something that is fact.
I also cleaned up the part about alleged "misogyny" a little bit trying to keep the core idea without the bizarre speculation about "childless women". His aunt was crazy and abusive and he hated her in a way that comes out often in his writing. He hated her because she was abusive to him, not because he cared about whether or not she had children of her own.
As for the anti-semitism, if anyone seriously cares about this I would suggest that you read "The Unrest Cure" since it's actually about anti-semitism. If he was going to let slip anything anti-semitic it would be there. You must keep in mind two things: 1) In polite upper-middle-class England in the 1900s pogroms were a thing of the past. Saki's readers did not know that the holocaust would happen 40 years later. They only knew that violence against Jews had been decreasing since long before they were born. 2) Many of Saki's stories juxtaposed middle-class England with the more chaotic and violent circumstances of places he had been to like Burma, India, the Balkans, or the Middle East. "The Unrest Cure" follows this formula. The pogrom is something extremely violent that was happening at the time but far away from the tranquil English setting that Saki inserts it into. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abu America ( talk • contribs) 10:06, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
I hadn't meant to offend or cause controversy when I edited out this reference, but it is based on a misreading of Saki's story "Adrian". The context of the reference in the story makes it clear that the East End slum of Whitechapel, adjoining the equally insalubrious Bethnal Green (mentioned in the previous sentence)is what is meant, rather than the West End's postal district. This is an great example of Saki's sarcasm. Adrian's residence is not in an auspicious location at all, and 'roomlet' means just that; it's not at all like the comfortable bachelor lodgings in which Munro lived. "Adrian" is about the merry destruction a clever boy from the London slums wreaks when unknowingly taken up by members of Edwardian moneyed society, and the whole plot hinges on their ignorance of his origins and background (note how cleverly the author allows Lucas Croyden to almost let slip Adrian's mother's residence in Bethnal Green, but then check himself just in time - it sets up the punch line of the story.) Saki's characters and bright young men (Reginald,Clovis and their ilk) often do have lives, backgrounds, and residences illustrative of his own life, but the title character in "Adrian" is not among that group, and nothing could be further from Munro's own living situation or millieu. Again, I had no desire to offend (I'm new to this), but I'm really pretty sure about this one. 66.92.65.91 ( talk) 20:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
References
Do we know for a fact how Saki is to be pronounced? For context, A. A. Milne was confused too:
It may have been my uncertainty (which still persists) whether he called himself Sayki, Sahki or Sakki which made me thus ungenerous of his name
--Introduction, The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki, 1911
Do we have some other source? Ijon ( talk) 20:54, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
'By his marriage to Mary Frances Mercer (1843–1872), the daughter of Rear Admiral Samuel Mercer.' That's the set-up - where's the payoff? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.98.187.218 ( talk) 03:19, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
“Some confusion having arisen owing to the similarity of names, Mr. Hector H. Munro (who usually writes under the pen-name of ‘Saki’) asks us to state that he is not the author of the novel ‘Mrs. Elmsley,’ by Mr. Hector Munro, published by Messrs. Constable and Co.” ― ‘Notice in the Westminster Gazette, Monday 3 April 1911, p. 4.’
https://www.annotated-saki.info/
SAKI LIFE IN ARMY 2409:4064:4D06:B20F:0:0:3448:630F ( talk) 14:08, 18 December 2021 (UTC)