Huneker

biographical sketch of the composer and a schol-
arly analysis of his works, in which the knowl-
edge of Huneker, the pianist, is conveyed with all
the skill of Huneker, the critic. Of his other
works the more important are: Mdomaniacs
(1902) ; Overtones (1904); Iconoclasts, a Book
of Dramatists (1905); Visionaries (1905) I Ego-
ists, a Book of Supermen (1909); Promenades
of an Impressionist (1910) ;Fran2 Liszt (1911) ;
The Pathos of Distance (1913) J Ivory Apes and
Peacocks (1915); New Cosmopolis (1915), a
study of New York; Unicorns (1917); Bedouins
(1920), and Variations (1921). There was also
a novel, Painted Veils (1920), printed only for
private circulation. Melomaniacs reveals his
bent for fiction, with satirical comment on life
and the shams of art as its basis,

Readers of Huneker's works will realize that
he lived intensely in his own time and that his
fervid literary art recorded the activities of let-
ters, painting, the drama, and music with fidelity
and keen sympathy* He was sometimes charged
with a want of fixed convictions, but this criti-
cism betrays a misconception of the man. He was
above all else an explorer. When he heard of a
new territory he went to it at once; and if there
he found new gods, he bowed before their altars
till he had learned all they could tell him and then
set out in search of farther lands. This trend of
mind gave him his astonishing versatility. As a
literary worker he was primarily a prose stylist
He knew verse and loved it, but the technique of
poetry never interested him as that of prose did.
Splendor in style always aroused him. He had
the soul of a seventeenth-century Venetian. All
that was most voluptuous in form and color filled
him with a rapture which sought utterance in
sonorous phrase. In Steeplejack we find him in
his early years in Paris plunged in a whirl of
painters from which presently emerges one clear
figure—Monet And when he begins to speak of
French literature there stands before all other
writers Flaubert, master of orchestral prose> of
whom he wrote: "Above all Flaubert was a mu-
sician, a musical poet His ear was the final court
of appeal, and to make sonorous cadences Jn a
language that lacks the essential richness, the
diapasonic undertow of the English, is just short
of miraculous" (Variations^. 56).

The parenthetic reference to the superiority
of English as a medium for prose lyricism is a
betrayal of Hunefcer's secret aspiration. Fiau-
berf $ achievement in compelling French prose to
m$ nrigfet at least be equaled, if not surpassed.
The musician in Huneker urged him to try to
Wffo? his language not merely as an instrttment,
hot as an orchestra, Tltese facts serve tx) explain

Hunnewell
his incessant flights into oratorical picturesque-
ness and the variety of his luxurious imagery.
Huneker's first wife was Clio Hinton, a sculp-
tress. His second wife was Josephine Lasca,
who collected and published the two volumes of
his letters.
[Letters of Jos. Gibbons Huneker (1922) and Inti-
mate Letters of Jos. Gibbons Huneker (1924), ed. by
Josephine Huneker; Benj. de Casseres, Jas. Gibbons
Huneker (1925) ; Who's Who in America, 1920-21; E.
P. Mitchell, Memoirs of an Editor (1924); H. L.
Mencken, A Book of Prefaces (1917), and Prejudices:
Third Series (1922) ; N. Y. Times, World (N. Y.), Feb.
10, 1921; personal acquaintance.] W. J H
HUNNEWELL, HORATIO HOLLIS (July
27, i8io-Mar. 20, 1902), banker, horticulturist,
son of Dr. Walter and Susanna (Cooke) Hunne-
well, was born in Watertown, Mass. He was
descended from Ambrose Hunnewell who emi-
grated from Devonshire, England, and settled in
Maine about 1660. His early education he gained
in the schools of Watertown, but at the age of
fifteen he abandoned formal training for a busi-
ness opportunity of somewhat unusual character.
Samuel Welles, of Natick, Mass., a kinsman, had
a number of years before established a Paris
banking house, and to this young Hunnewell was
invited to come. Here after ten years' sojourn,
during which time Welles & Company had be-
come one of the best known of American houses
in Paris, he became a partner in the business and
on Dec. 24, 1835, married a niece of Samuel
Welles, Isabelle Pratt Welles, daughter of John
Welles. Two years later Welles & Company
were so badly crippled by the panic of 1837 that
the Paris house was closed, and Hunnewell re-
turned to Massachusetts, with no money and
great uncertainty as to his future work. His first
years at home were spent in settling the affairs
of the Paris business; he then looked about for
inviting business opportunities. New England
capital was at the time being directed to western
railroad building, and to this Hunnewell turned
his energies, becoming interested in a large num-
ber of railroads, both in New England and the
Middle West He served at one time and another
as president of three roads, all centering in Kan-
sas City, and was on the boards of directors of
nearly two score more, among which were the
Vermont Central, the Old Colony, the Illinois
Central, and the Michigan Central. In addition
he was one of the ^corporators and a member of
the board of directors of the Webster Bank of
Boston, was vice-president of the Provident In-
stitution for Savings from 1861 to 2902, and was
director of many mining and industrial concerns.
In 1860 he established the Boston business of
H- H. Hunnewell & Sons, which for the next
fifteen years specialized in foreign exchange.