Meltzer, Charles Henry, 1853-1936

Dramatist and critic. Born in London in 1853, Charles Henry Meltzer studied at Oxford University, where he won a scholarship at the age of fourteen. Meltzer also studied music in London and Paris. Meltzer became a correspondent for several newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the New York Herald, and was also a music critic and writer for magazines. From 1912 to 1916 Meltzer was librettist for the Chicago Opera Company. He was the author or adaptor of a number of plays, and founder of Criterion Magazine (1903) and the American Society for the Promotion of Opera in English (1907). A linguist, Meltzer was proficient in seven languages. Meltzer died in New York City in 1936.