George Putnam Upton (1834-1919) was an American journalist, music critic and author. He graduated from Brown University in 1854 and moved to Chicago where he worked on various papers in that city including the Native Citizen, the Evening Journal and the Chicago Tribune. He was one of the first music critics in Chicago. He wrote, and contributed to several magazines of the day, and published several books, including: Letters of Peregrine Pickle (1869), The Great Fire (1872), Woman in Music (1880/1886), Lives of Haydn, Liszt, and Wagner (from the German of Louis Nohl) (3 vols., 1883-4), The Standard Operas: Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers (1885), The Standard Oratorios: Their Stories, Their Music, and Their Composers (1886), The Standard Cantatas: Their Stories, Their Music, and Their Composers (1887), The Standard Symphonies: Their Stories, Their Music, and Their Composers (1888), Recent Development of Musical Culture in Chicago (1898), The Standard Concert Guide (1915) and The Song: Its Birth, Evolution, and Functions (1915).