Francis Hueffer (born Franz Carl Christoph Johann Hüffer; 22 May 1845[1] – 19 January 1889) was a German-English writer on music, music critic, and librettist.
Hueffer was born in Münster, Kingdom of Prussia, on 22 May 1845 to Johann Hermann Hüffer, a politician and editor and his second wife Maria Theresia Julia (Julia) Kaufmann, sister of Leopold Kaufmann, Chief Burgomaster (in German Oberbürgermeister) of Bonn and of Alexander Kaufmann, poet and folklorist.
He studied modern philology and music in London, Paris, Berlin, and Leipzig, and earned a Ph.D. in 1869 from the University of Göttingen for a critical edition of the works of Guillem de Cabestant, a 12th-century troubadour.
He wrote a number of books on music, especially on music history and biography; edited the Great Musicians series for Novello & Co; and translated the correspondence of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt to English.
He also wrote the libretti for several English operas: Alexander Mackenzie's Colomba and The Troubadour, and Frederic Hymen Cowen's Sleeping Beauty.