The New Journalism: 1895–1912

Kerby, Martin C.

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-57301-8_2

Martin C. Kerby²

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media ((PSHM))

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Abstract

Kerby provides an insight into ‘The New Journalism’ in Britain prior to the First World War by documenting the career of journalist Sir Philip Gibbs. Working first in the field of literary syndication, Gibbs entered Fleet Street in 1902 where he worked in turn for the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, and the Daily Chronicle. As a journalist, he reported on the important issues facing Britain such as the suffragettes, Industrial unrest, Ireland, and the lead-up to war. Gibbs also covered events as diverse as the fraudulent discovery of the North Pole by Dr Cook, the death of King Edward VII, King George V’s Coronation, Blériot’s flight across the Channel, the trial of Doctor Crippen, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Battle of Sidney Street.

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Notes

1.
P Gibbs (1946) The Pageant of the Years (London: Heinemann), p. 27.
2.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 18.
3.
Correspondence between author and Michael Harding 31 March 2008; Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 17.
4.
A Gibbs (1970) In My Own Good Time (Boston: Gambit Incorporated), p. 65.
5.
P Gibbs (1900) Founders of the Empire (London: Cassell & Co Ltd), p. iv.
6.
P Gibbs (1903) India: Our Eastern Empire (Ludgate Hill: Cassell & Co Ltd), p. 201.
7.
P Gibbs (1910) Knowledge is Power: A Guide to Personal Culture (London: Edward Arnold) pp. 285–6.
8.
Gibbs (1957) Life’s Adventure (London: Angus & Robertson), p. 99.
9.
Macbeth, Act II, Scene II.
10.
P Gibbs (1913) The New Man—A Portrait Study of the Latest Type (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons), p. 6.
11.
Gibbs, The New Man, p. 58.
12.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, p. 91.
13.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 31.
14.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 32.
15.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 33.
16.
Gibbs, Knowledge is Power, p. 4.
17.
Letter to Mrs. Suverkrop, 22 June 1901. Philip Gibbs Letters, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries.
18.
AJP Taylor (1965) English History 1914–1945 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press), p. 187.
19.
AN Wilson (2005) After the Victorians (London: Hutchinson), p. 178.
20.
SJ Taylor (1996) The Great Outsiders: Northcliffe, Rothmere and the Daily Mail (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson), p. 38.
21.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 40.
22.
P Gibbs (1923) Adventures in Journalism (London: Harper and Brothers Publishers), p. 9.
23.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 40.
24.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, pp. 2–3.
25.
P Ackroyd (2000) London: The Biography (London: Chatto Windus), p. 717.
26.
J Schneer (2001) London 1901: The Imperial Metropolis (London: Yale University Press), p. 7.
27.
P Morton (2009) ‘Australia’s England, 1880–1950’. In P. Pierce (ed.) The Cambridge History of Australian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 261.
28.
H Fyfe (1935) My Seven Selves (London: George Allen & Unwin), p. 95.
29.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 37.
30.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 156.
31.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 46.
32.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, pp. 10; 16; 13.
33.
New York Times, 23 February 1919.
34.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 44.
35.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 49.
36.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 48.
37.
G Dangerfield (1966) The Strange Death of Liberal England (London: MacGibbon & Kee), pp. 21–2.
38.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 95.
39.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 97.
40.
P Gibbs (1952) The Journalist’s London (London: Allan Wingate), p. 123.
41.
P Gibbs (1924) Ten Years After (London: Hutchinson & Co), p. 183.
42.
For a selection of Gibbs’ use of soul, one might look at ‘the soul of the war’, ‘one’s democratic soul’, ‘French soul’, ‘the soul of England’, ‘the wounded soul of the world’, Lloyd George could ‘risk his soul’, the ‘soul of men’, while Germany could search ‘for its soul’.
43.
M Bentley (1977) The Liberal Mind 1914–1929 (London: Cambridge University Press), p. 2.
44.
M Bentley, The Liberal Mind 1914–1929, p. 3.
45.
M Bentley, The Liberal Mind 1914–1929, p. 3.
46.
HG Wells (1911) The New Machiavelli (London: John Lane), pp. 325–6. In S Hynes (1991) The Edwardian Turn of Mind (London: Pimlico), p. 12.
47.
Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England, p. 70.
48.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, p. 51.
49.
Gibbs, Ten Years After, p. 23; P Gibbs (1958) How Now England? (London: Angus and Robertson), p. 68.
50.
Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England, p. 179.
51.
Gibbs, Ten Years After, p. 151.
52.
Gibbs, Ten Years After, p. 151.
53.
Gibbs, Ten Years After, p. 155.
54.
Gibbs, Ten Years After, p. 151.
55.
P Gibbs (1934) European Journey (New York: The Literary Guild), p. 339.
56.
Hynes, The Edwardian Mind, pp. 56–7.
57.
Gibbs, European Journey, pp. 341–2.
58.
Bentley, The Liberal Mind, p. 1; 2.
59.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 114.
60.
M Gibbs (2000) Seven Generations—Our Gibbs Ancestors (London: Martin Gibbs), p. 38.
61.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 30.
62.
In his most complete autobiography written in 1946, Gibbs states that there were seven children, not eight, thus leaving out either a sister who died shortly after birth or the unfortunate Thomas who committed suicide.
63.
See B Gates (1988) Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
64.
A Lee (1973) ‘Franklin Thomasson and the Tribune: A Case Study in the History of the Liberal Press, 1906-1908’ The Historical Journal, vol. 16, no. 2, June 1973, p. 341.
65.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, p. 13; Lee, Franklin Thomasson, p. 359.
66.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 109.
67.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventures, p. 35.
68.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 71.
69.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 3.
70.
Frederick Cook (1865–1940) claimed to have reached the North Pole in April 1908, a year before Robert Perry. His claim is still clouded in controversy (as is Perry’s), although Gibbs, who broke the story, was convinced that he was a fraud.
71.
King Edward VII (1862–1910).
72.
King George V (1865–1936) was crowned in 1910.
73.
Louis Bleriot (1872–1936) achieved the first heavier-than-air flight over a large body of water on 25 July 1909 when he crossed the English Channel.
74.
Dr Crippen (1862–1910) was executed for the murder of his wife. He and his lover were the first criminals to be apprehended with the aid of wireless communication.
75.
In January 1911, Peter Piatkov (Peter the Painter) and some fellow Latvian anarchists were caught by police trying to tunnel into a jeweller’s shop in Houndsditch, East London. Two policemen and one of the burglars were killed, with the remainder returning up the tunnel to their quarters in 100 Sidney Street. A siege ensued, and the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, gave the authority for the use of the Scots Guard in the Tower and the Horse Artillery from St John’s Wood barracks. The anarchists set fire to the house, and police subsequently found three corpses in the gutted building. The episode gained notoriety because Churchill hurried to the scene himself, not so much in spite of the danger but because of it, and his subsequent unsuccessful introduction of amendments to the Aliens Act to forbid the carrying of firearms by aliens.
76.
Gibbs, The Journalist’s London, p. 15.
77.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 55; Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 100.
78.
Salt Lake Tribune, 20 May 1923.
79.
Related by Gibbs in the Salt Lake Tribune, 20 May 1923.
80.
New York Times, 8 September 1909.
81.
New York Times, 9 September 1909.
82.
G Overton (1924) Cargoes for Crusoes (New York: D Appleton & Company), p. 20.
83.
Claude Grahame-White (1879–1959).
84.
Hubert Latham (1883–1912).
85.
Samuel Franklin Cowdery later known as Samuel Franklin Cody (1867–1913).
86.
Gustav Hamel (1889–1914).
87.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 168.
88.
Syracuse Herald, 1 July 1923.
89.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 170.
90.
Daily Chronicle, 16 October 1909.
91.
Daily Chronicle, 18 October 1909.
92.
The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls (1877–1910).
93.
Daily Chronicle, 26 July 1909.
94.
P Gibbs (1949) Crowded Company (London: Allan Wingate), p. 39.
95.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 177.
96.
Syracuse Herald, 1 July 1923.
97.
Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan (1883–1963).
98.
Jules Vedrines (1881–1919).
99.
Jean Louis Conneau (1880–1937) flew under the pseudonym Andrew Beaumont.
100.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 175.
101.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 175.
102.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 27.
103.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 28.
104.
Correspondence between Philip Gibbs and his son Tony, circa 1931. Courtesy Gibbs Family Archives.
105.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, p. 26.
106.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 30.
107.
Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England, p. 49.
108.
Gibbs, The Journalist’s London, p. 68.
109.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 137.
110.
Eva Mabel Tenison.
111.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 138; Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 109.
112.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 141.
113.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 142.
114.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 113.
115.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, pp. 145–6.
116.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 146.
117.
D Wheeler (1999) Republican Portugal (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), pp. 98–9.
118.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, pp. 115–6.
119.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 123.
120.
Hynes, The Edwardian State of Mind, p. 13.
121.
Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England, p. 298.
122.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 206.
123.
Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England, p. 12.
124.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 207.
125.
That said, the Liberal Party itself was not necessarily any more pro-feminist in its outlook than the Tories.
126.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 215.
127.
P Gibbs (1931) Since Then (London: Heinemann), p. 368.
128.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 215.
129.
Lady Astor would later ask Philip and Agnes to receptions, in his view, to convert them to Christian Science.
130.
New York Times, 2 December 1919.
131.
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) and her eldest daughter Christabel (1880–1958).
132.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 128.
133.
Gibbs, The New Man, p. 4.
134.
Times Literary Supplement, 9 October 1913.
135.
Gibbs, The New Man, p. 87.
136.
New York Times, 9 November 1913.
137.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, p. 104.
138.
Gibbs, Life’s Adventure, p. 104.
139.
Wilson, After the Victorians, p. 52.
140.
Chiozza Money, quoted in Wilson, After the Victorians, p. 55.
141.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 125.
142.
Gibbs, The New Man, pp. 99; 112.
143.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 214; Gibbs, The New Man, p. 98.
144.
P Gibbs (1912) The Deathless Story of the Titanic (London: Lloyd’s of London Press Ltd), p. 14.
145.
Gibbs, The Deathless Story of the Titanic, p. 16.
146.
R Howells (1999) The Myth of the Titanic (New York: St Martin’s Press), p. 69.
147.
Gibbs, The Deathless Story of the Titanic, pp. 1–2.
148.
Gibbs, The Deathless Story of the Titanic, p. 28.
149.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 223.
150.
Gibbs, The Pageant of the Years, p. 225.
151.
Gibbs, The Journalist’s London, p. 1.
152.
Gibbs, The Journalist’s London, pp. 4–5.
153.
Gibbs, The Journalist’s London, p. 14.
154.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 192.
155.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 201.
156.
Commemorative booklet for a dinner given in Gibbs’ honour at the Savoy Hotel, 27 December 1917. Gibbs Family Archives.
157.
Commemorative booklet, pp. 12; 25; Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 196.
158.
P Gibbs (1913) The Balkan War: Adventures of War with Cross and Crescent (Boston: Small Maynard and Company), p. 115.
159.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, p. 113.
160.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, pp. 191–2.
161.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, p. 5.
162.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, p. 9.
163.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, p. 190.
164.
Gibbs, The New Man, p. 205.
165.
P Knightley (1989) The First Casualty (London: Pan Books), p. 481.
166.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, p. 3.
167.
Gibbs, Adventures in Journalism, p. 191.
168.
Gibbs, The Balkan War, p. 1.
169.
New York Times, 23 February 1913.
170.
The Times Literary Supplement, 26 December 1912.

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Humanities & International Studies, University of Southern Queensland, Toowooomba, Queensland, Australia
Martin C. Kerby

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Kerby, M.C. (2016). The New Journalism: 1895–1912. In: Sir Philip Gibbs and English Journalism in War and Peace. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57301-8_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57301-8_2
Published: 25 February 2016
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