Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Henry Pleasants (1910-2000) was an American music critic. Born on May 12, 1910, in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Pleasants studied voice, piano and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he received an honorary doctorate in 1977. In 1930, at age 19, he became a music critic for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and was the paper's music editor from 1934 to 1942, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. In 1948-49, he re-entered the military as an army liaison officer with the Austrian government. He left the army to enter the Foreign Service in 1950, serving as an intelligence officer in Munich, Bern, and Bonn.