Huneker, James Gibbons

Huneker, James Gibbons (hŭn`ĭkər), 1860–1921, American essayist and music critic, b. Philadelphia. The originality and pungency of his style and the soundness of his criticism made him one of the most important critics of his time. He was music, art, and drama critic for the New York Sun (1902–17), then music critic for the Times (1917–19), and later for the World (from 1919 until his death). He also wrote several books.

Bibliography

See his Letters (1922) and Intimate Letters (1924).

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Huneker, James Gibbons (1860–1921) critic, musician; born in Philadelphia. Switching from law to musical studies, he became a teacher at the National Conservatory of Music in New York City (1886–98). Meanwhile, in 1887 he had begun to write for the Musical Courier and he would continue to write for a series of newspapers and periodicals until his death, broadening his subjects to include drama, art, literature, and the cultural scene in general. He also published over a dozen books, including some serious studies of musicians such as Chopin: The Man and His Music (1900),—but mostly wide-ranging commentaries, such as Ivory, Apes and Peacocks (1915). In his day he was greatly admired for his keen wit, erudition, iconoclasm, and brilliant style—an American G. B. Shaw; but his tastes in art remained conservative and later generations found his prose old fashioned.