Huneker was well-known for supporting new artists well before they became part of the canon, including Henrik Ibsen, Thomas Hardy, Anton Chekhov, Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy, George Bernard Shaw, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh among numerous others. While Huneker was well traveled in social circles, and his writings appreciated, they did not pay a great deal. He died of pneumonia at the age of 64.