Henry T. Finck

Henry Theophilus Finck was an American music critic and author, born in 1854 in Missouri and raised in Oregon. He studied at Harvard and later continued his education in Germany and Austria before building a long career in journalism and criticism.

Finck became chief classical music critic for the New York Evening Post and The Nation, and he was known as a prolific, influential voice on music. He strongly supported Romantic composers such as Wagner, Liszt, Grieg, and MacDowell, and he also wrote widely on subjects beyond music, including travel, food, gardening, and human relationships.

He published more than two dozen books, and his writing ranged from concert criticism to memoir and cultural commentary. Finck died in 1926, leaving behind a body of work that captures both his strong opinions and his wide-ranging curiosity.