[George Putnam]. American musical critic and journalist, born in Roxbury, MA, on the 25th of October 1834. He graduated at Brown University in 1854, and the next year removed to Chicago, where he became connected with the Native Citizen; was city editor of the Evening Journal (1856–61); war correspondent on the Tribune (1862–63); musical critic on the same paper (1862–81); and editorial writer from 1872. He was the first newspaper-man to establish a separate musical department, and was the founder and the first president of the Apollo Musical Club of Chicago, founded in 1872. Aside from contributions to magazines, he published Letters of Peregrine Pickle (1869); The Great Fire (1872); Woman in Music (1886); Standard Operas (1885); Standard Oratorios (1886); Standard Symphonies (1888); Standard Cantatas (1887); and a translation of Mohl’s Lives of Eminent Musicians (1883–84).
