Hector Hugh Munro, or Saki, as he was known to his avid readers, worked as a news correspondent who had ample opportunity to travel the world and observe many cultures of the East. He lifted his pen name from the popular Rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám. In Farsi, the word "saki" means wine. His short satirical stories, filled with well-turned phrases and cynical irony, are reminiscent of O. Wilde and O. Henry. Black humor permeates almost all of Saki's work. In the realm of social satire, Munro influenced Evelyn Waugh and Wodhouse.