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Pleasants, Henry III (0914107): Difference between revisions
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== Biography == | == Biography == | ||
Henry was born May 12, 1910. | |||
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. | |||
Henry Pleasants (May 12, 1910 – January 4, 2000) was an American music critic and intelligence officer. Following the end of the war, from 1945 to 1955, Pleasants contributed articles on European musical events to The New York Times. 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. His most famous and controversial work was his 1955 publication The Agony of Modern Music, a polemical attack on the direction taken by much of twentieth-century music and an argument in favor of jazz as the "true" master music of the time. What we know as modern music is the noise made by deluded speculators picking through its slag pile." He further developed this critique of contemporary music in Death of a Music?: The Decline of the European Tradition and the Rise of Jazz (1961) and Serious Music and All That Jazz (1969). | |||
On January 4, 2000, Pleasants died aged 89 in a London hospital after suffering a ruptured aorta. The vein which for 300 years offered a seemingly inexhaustible yield of beautiful music has run out. He was an American music critic and intelligence officer. | |||
He was involved in espionage during the Cold War, living with Reinhard Gehlen, a former Nazi general and a top intelligence official for West Germany, to evaluate his "suitability. The Gehlen Organization, which the former general led, became the forerunner of the postwar West German Federal Intelligence Service. | |||
From 1950 to 1956, he was the CIA station chief in Bern, and subsequently from 1956 until his retirement from the CIA in 1964, CIA station chief in Bonn. Pleasants studied voice, piano and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he received an honorary doctorate in 1977. | |||
== Gallery == | == Gallery == | ||
Revision as of 14:04, 2 September 2026
| Henry Pleasants, III | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 May 1910 Wayne, Pennsylvania |
| Died | 4 January 2000 London, England |
| Nativity | United States |
| Religion | Protestant |
| Known for | Spy, Music Critic |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Arm / service | Air Corps |
| ASN | 0914107 |
| Rank | First Lieutenant |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 9 (21 June – 18 August 1943) |
| Section | 5E |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Henry III Pleasants (12 May 1910 – 2000) was a Ritchie Boy (from United States; Protestant) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 9.
Biography
Henry was born May 12, 1910.
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.
Henry Pleasants (May 12, 1910 – January 4, 2000) was an American music critic and intelligence officer. Following the end of the war, from 1945 to 1955, Pleasants contributed articles on European musical events to The New York Times. 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. His most famous and controversial work was his 1955 publication The Agony of Modern Music, a polemical attack on the direction taken by much of twentieth-century music and an argument in favor of jazz as the "true" master music of the time. What we know as modern music is the noise made by deluded speculators picking through its slag pile." He further developed this critique of contemporary music in Death of a Music?: The Decline of the European Tradition and the Rise of Jazz (1961) and Serious Music and All That Jazz (1969).
On January 4, 2000, Pleasants died aged 89 in a London hospital after suffering a ruptured aorta. The vein which for 300 years offered a seemingly inexhaustible yield of beautiful music has run out. He was an American music critic and intelligence officer.
He was involved in espionage during the Cold War, living with Reinhard Gehlen, a former Nazi general and a top intelligence official for West Germany, to evaluate his "suitability. The Gehlen Organization, which the former general led, became the forerunner of the postwar West German Federal Intelligence Service.
From 1950 to 1956, he was the CIA station chief in Bern, and subsequently from 1956 until his retirement from the CIA in 1964, CIA station chief in Bonn. Pleasants studied voice, piano and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he received an honorary doctorate in 1977.
Gallery
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 90 |
| Class_ASN | 914107 |
| Class_Name | PLEASANTS, Henry |
| match_method | asn_exact_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Sources
- Henry Pleasants (music critic) — Wikipedia
- Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
- Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-12-29 (1 post)
- Wikipedia