SOURCE: "Huneker," in Literary Criticism in America: A Preliminary Survey, 1927. Reprint by Russell & Russell, 1967, pp. 206-44.

In the following essay, De Mille profiles Huneker as a gifted literary critic who introduced many important European authors to North American readers.

I

Every now and then some criticaster, of the sort who believe that authors can be ranked and graded like pupils in a class in elementary arithmetic, sets out to answer the question, Who is the great American critic? The answers to this question have been various and surprising. Lowell has been most often mentioned, but one also hears the names of Poe, Stedman, and even Margaret Fuller. No one, however, has as yet nominated for the honor James Huneker. Indeed, of all the major American critics, Huneker has been most persistently ignored. The qualities of the man are so obvious that this demands some attempt at explanation. This...