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CHAPTER X

THE INTERVIEW

“ To be a good interviewer demands a knowledge and skill beyond the ready belief of a layman. The fundamentals of successful inter viewing go down to the roots of human nature ; its complex difficulties can be solved only by those that are willing to study life with enthu

siastic and unflagging zeal.” — C. E. Russell. The interview is a comparatively modern field of journalistic

enterprise. Its first appearance was in America about the time of the Civil War, it was rare until about 1868, and the first formal notice of the practice of interviewing probably appeared in 1869.1 It was at first looked at askance, but it somewhat quickly estab

lished itself as an important and useful part of journalism, it came to be considered the most characteristic feature of American journalism, it was introduced into Europe where it was somewhat

coldly received, and after many ups and downs as well asmany changes in form and in purpose, it has come to be recognized as a conspicuous, if not an indispensable part of the press , even though

its function has materially changed. In reality the interview is not so modern as it is credited with

being, — the germ of it is found in all the conversations, real or imaginary, carried on between distinguished persons where a 1 J. B. McCullough of the St. Louis Globe -Democrat has been called the inventor of the interview. - F. A. Burr, “ The Art of Interviewing,” Lippin cott's Magazine, - September , 1890 , 46 : 391 - 402. E. L. Shuman finds its origin in 1859 when the New York Herald sent a reporter to see Gerrit Smith after John Brown ' s raid.

The subject was

freely discussed and the result was the interview in the modern sense.

Practical Journalism, pp. 47 – 48 . 3 " The 'interview ', as at present managed, is generally the joint produc tion of some humbug of a hack politician and another humbug of a news

paper reporter .” — The Nation, January 28, 1869, 8 : 66. 3 R. Blathwayt says that he introduced the American interview into

British journalism about 1890. - Through Life and Round the World, chap.

VIII. See also the chapter on “ The Art of Interviewing,” in his Interviews, Pp. 347 –