Author · United States · 1857–1921
James Huneker
Modernist criticism that links music, art, and literature with cosmopolitan wit and a fine ear.
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.
Genres
Literary fiction
Huneker and modern taste in 2026
James Huneker tunes the ear and the eye at once. His essays connect concert hall, studio, and street, showing how taste is made through attention not pose. In a rush of new forms he models curiosity with standards. Read him to judge less by trend and more by craft, context, and sound.
