Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/296

 354.

Boswell or a Landor has been present. No more famous interview has ever been reported than the one Dr. Johnson gave George III

in the library of Buckingham House, in 1767, concerning the library resources of Oxford and Cambridge and general literary subjects. It is probably the only instance recorded where a king

has been the interviewer, — but the situation met with the entire satisfaction of the person interviewed. It is assuredly a far cry

from that enjoyable library scene to a later day when the London press was reported to be irritated because American rather than English papers carried an interview with the King of Belgium that the Associated Press had obtained in December, 1914. “ It never occurred to me that a king would see a reporter," was the rueful comment of the disconsolate would have been interviewer.5

But the interview as it has come to be understood to-day implies

a person to be interviewed for some specific reason and a reporter or correspondent detailed by a newspaper for this particular task. What is the attitude of the historian toward the interview ? From

his standpoint more or less discredit is attached to it. The inter view is often soughtwith persons who are momentarily prominent and it is frankly sought for this reason, not because any weight is attached or, under other circumstances , would ever be attached

to what is said by the person interviewed. If a person previously unknown is unexpectedly appointed or elected to an important

office, the interview immediately gives his views on allsubjects, the weight of authority is attached to the office, in the opinion

of the interviewer, rather than to the person filling it. The busi ness man who becomes a college president ipso facto is interviewed on the work of the graduate or the professional schools; the coal Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. by G. B. Hill, II, 37-48. A summary is given in the Christian Science Monitor, September 1, 1916. 6 Detroit Free Press, April 13, 1915. 6 Important accounts of interviewing and varying opinions as to its value from the point of view of the press are given by A. W. à Beckett, The

Modern Adam ; Frank Banfield, “ Interviewing in Practice," National Re view , November, 1895, 26 : 367- 378 ; E . L . Banks, The Autobiography of a

“ Newspaper Girl;" Raymond Blathwayt, Through Life and Round the World ; A . Dunlop, Fifty Years of Irish Journalism ; R . S . Durstine, “ Appearing in Print,” The Outlook, June 13 , 1914 , 107: 357–364 ; Ernest Foster, An Editor 's Chair ; A . F . Hill, Secrets of the Sanctum ; J. Kilmer , “ The American Inter

viewer,” The New Witness, January 10, 1918 , 11: 244 - 245; H. Leech, Fleet Street from Within ; I. F. Marcosson, Adventures in Interviewing:

R. Whiteing, My Harvest; C. F. Wingate, Views and Interviews.