Saki, A Life of Hector Hugh Munro with Six Short Stories Never Before Collected

by A.J. Langguth, Saki

"Mr. Langguth has surmounted the problem that confronts any biographer of a writer like Saki. Without appearing to compete with his subject, he writes cleverly enough to hold his own against copious quotation from that witty subject's work." The Atlantic Monthly

"Mr. Langguth, the author of Hidden Terrors, Macumba and Jesus Christs, is superb at stitching Saki's witticisms into a history of the fop who failed...(he) writes perfect sentences." The New York Times

"A. J. Langguth, a novelist and an ex-New York Times correspondent in Saigon, now offers the first full biography (of Munro.) As biographer-critic, he proves knowing, balanced and blessedly brief." Time Magazine

"Both subject and author have an aptitude for exactly the right word, the perfect choice. They are also both fine and perceptive observers of the world around them." The Los Angeles Times

"More than once, the biographer approaches his subject's skill at the well-turned phrase." The Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

A.J. "Jack" Langguth was a Professor at the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California and an American author and journalist. In addition to his non-fiction work, he is the author of several dark, satirical novels. A graduate of Harvard College, Langguth was South East Asian correspondent and Saigon bureau chief for "The New York Times" during the Vietnam war. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1975, and received the The Freedom Forum Award, honoring the nation's top journalism educators, in 2001.
A nonfiction study of the Reconstruction Era, is scheduled to be published in 2013.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A biography of H.H. Munro, better known by his pen-name Saki, which includes six short stories not previously published. The details of Saki's life are sketchy in places, and murky in others. One can try to fill in details from elements of his fiction or journalism, but this practice may not help.

This volume quotes widely from Saki's work; and makes one rather wish to just be reading the original material. Langguth's conclusions drawn from the novel The Unbearable Bassington did not make sense to this reader.

When someone like the flippant and slippery Munro tries his very best to keep much of his life a secret, the resulting biographies are bound to be unsatisfactory. His secrets died with him, and his exquisite short fiction remains.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good read. The author spends a little too much time explicating Saki's stories and relating them to his life. But he does a good job of outlining the great one's shaping influences and the painful ironies of his life, ironies that could have come from his own short stories. The 6 newly-gathered stories of his at the end, none of which I had heard of before, made my whole weekend.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this biography for views into Saki's childhood. What becomes of a child who lives off of fantasy and rejection from family, sees aunts like a cup of chocolate a variety of distinct ill humors that he recreated in stories. He was a bit like the Bronte sisters and brother in the book The Bronte Cabinet. Everyone has a cabinet except me.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/137217.html[return][return]H.H. Munro was born in 1870 and killed in the first world war in 1916. It

[Mina · Rating 3 out of 5]

somehow boring! but i need to read it.