Isaac Frederick Marcosson

Background

Isaac Frederick Marcosson was born on March 14, 1961 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the son of Louis and Helen M. Marcosson. His father was a traveling salesman.

Education

He was educated in the schools of Louisville.

Career

He began to gratify his ambition at eighteen, after the lack of money put an end to his education, by going to work for the Louisville Times. Marcosson rose swiftly on the Times to assistant city editor and book reviewer; Arthur Krock later recalled that upon entering Louisville journalism in 1910 he heard tales of his energy and advancement. Marcosson also began writing stories and reviews for national magazines; and in 1903, after a dispute with the city editor, he quit and went to New York City, hoping to find a job on a magazine. Through a slight acquaintance with Walter Hines Page, Marcosson became a staff writer on Page's World's Work, a business-oriented monthly. Soon he was writing three articles per issue, two under pseudonyms. At the same time he began his career as a journalistic "lion hunter, " interviewing Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie. In 1907, after a salary dispute, Marcosson joined the staff of the Saturday Evening Post, for which he subsequently wrote 124 weekly articles under the general title "Your Savings, " as well as other pieces. He commenced the friendly relations with Wall Street figures that led some to deride him as a "Little Brother of the Rich. " While working for the Post, Marcosson produced his first two books, How to Invest Your Savings (1907) and Autobiography of a Clown (1910). After three years as an editor at Munsey's, he returned to the Post in 1913, to begin almost a quarter-century as the foremost interviewer in American journalism. No American writer, commented the Bookman in 1919, received "more varied opportunity" from World War I than Marcosson. Undeterred by fourteen cancellations he secured an interview with David Lloyd George, which not only boosted his reputation but also led to other connections. By the end of the war, Marcosson had interviewed most of the leading Allied figures for the Post, gone to Russia (with letters of introduction from Lloyd George) to view the Kerensky government, and published The Rebirth of Russia (1917). After the war he went on a lecture tour of the United States, warning against Bolshevism. During the tour, he claimed, his life was threatened twenty-nine times by the Industrial Workers of the World. Marcosson's interviewing, which depended heavily on contacts and the willingness of his subjects to talk to him, led to a somewhat conservative view of journalism. During the 1920's and early 1930's Marcosson visited Africa, made several trips to South America, interviewed Sun Yat-sen and other Chinese leaders, and became the first American journalist to interview the emperor of Japan. But his reputation rested mostly on his pieces on European political and industrial leaders. Although he did not interview Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin, Marcosson interpreted Leon Trotsky, Benito Mussolini, Paul von Hindenburg, and scores of others for Post readers. His departures for and returns from Europe were covered by reporters seeking his impressions. Marcosson ascribed his 1936 break with the Post to editor George Horace Lorimer's conservatism and advancing age. Others have suggested that his long, formal interview style was becoming stale, especially in contrast with the "Profiles" being developed at the New Yorker. In any case, Marcosson could afford independence; in 1932, Caroline Freveris, the sister of his friend David Graham Phillips (whose biography he had published in that year), had left him $729, 286. Marcosson then abandoned other interests for the study of cancer, a disease then seldom mentioned in public. He was elected to the Board of Managers of New York's Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases, and became its first director of public relations. His writings on cancer appeared in Reader's Digest and Woman's Home Companion. He died on March 14, 1961 in New York City.

Achievements

• Marcosson was unquestionably the world's most successful journalistic "headhunter. " He was the first American journalist to interview the emperor of Japan.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Adventures in Interviewing (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Adventures in Interviewing This book grew o...)

  • The Autobiography of a Clown, as Told to Isaac F. Marcosson (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Autobiography of a Clown, as Told to Isa...)

  • Wherever men trade; the romance of the cash register

    (Economic finance management education)

  • Charles Frohman: Manager and Man

    (The man who never broke his word. There was a great deal ...)

  • S. O. S: America's Miracle in France (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from S. O. S: America's Miracle in France Their ...)

  • Industrial Main Street;: The story of Rome, the copper city
  • Wherever men trade;: The romance of the cash register,
  • Colonel Deeds, Industrial Builder
  • Turbulent Years (Essay index reprint series)

Views

Quotations: "Journalism is a high and noble profession and should be employed only as a constructive force. Abuse is what makes it yellow. "

"When you have played the game straight with a man, and have not had your sense of honor distorted by an impetuous desire to print an exclusive or secure a sensational statement just for the sake of pride or glory, that man will always be your friend, "

Personality

He was a major source of foreign news for the American public, providing careful accounts of significant developments. In John Tebbel's words, Marcosson "imparted a feeling of complete intimacy with his subject, " an intimacy with European figures rarely felt by Americans until then.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Mr. Marcosson seldom has anything unexpected to say about his princes and potentates, "- Vincent Sheean.

Connections

While on the staff of World's Work, Marcosson had married Grace Griffiths, his childhood sweetheart, knowing she was in the last stages of a fatal illness. On June 8, 1931, Morcosson married Frances Barberey. Shortly after he left the Post, she died of cancer. Through his cancer work Marcosson met Ellen Petts, whom he married on Sept. 1, 1942. She became his assistant and then his successor at Memorial. Later she helped him in the writing of a series of corporate biographies that included The Romance of the Cash Register (1945), Copper Heritage (1955), and Anaconda, (1957).

Father:

LouisMarcosson

Mother:

Helen M. Marcosson

Wife:

Frances Barberey

Wife:

Grace Griffiths

Wife:

Ellen Petts

References

• George Horace Lorimer and the Saturday evening post
• The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1940