James Huneker
1857 — 1921
James Gibbons Huneker was an American art, book, music, and theater critic. A colorful individual and an ambitious writer, he was “an American with a great mission,” in the words of his friend, the critic Benjamin De Casseres, and that mission was to educate Americans about the best cultural achievements, native and European, of his time. From 1892 to 1899, he was the husband of the sculptor Clio Hinton.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on James Huneker.
From the period sources
James Gibbons Huneker, born in Philadelphia in 1860 and later passing away in New York in 1921, was an eminent and versatile American littérateur and critic. Though originally educated as a lawyer, he received musical training from Cross, Mathias, and L. Damrosch, and was a pupil of Michael Hurley Cross, a prominent teacher in Philadelphia, according to Grove’s American Supplement (1920). From 1881 to 1891, Huneker served as an assistant to Joseffy at the National Conservatory in New York, and by 1891, he had become conspicuous as a brilliant critic and author, as noted in Grove’s American Supplement (1920). He contributed to various publications, including the New York Recorder (1891), the Advertiser (1895-97), and the Sun (1900-12), also writing for the Philadelphia Press and the New York Times in later years.
Huneker’s extensive literary output included works such as Mezzotints in Modern Music (1899), which featured an essay on “The Music of the Future” relevant to Brahms, as cited in Grove’s Dictionary (1904). His biography, Chopin, the Man and his Music, was published in New York in 1900, a fact recorded in both A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1905) and the Dictionary of Music (1908). His critical acumen was evident in his assessment of pianist Leopold Godowsky, whose playing Huneker described as “transcendental . . it is the fine equilibrium of intellect and emotion that compels admiration,” according to Grove’s American Supplement (1920). His works, uniting knowledge in music, drama, and general literature with a brilliant and witty style, secured him a unique place among American essayists, as observed in The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924).