SOURCE: “Augustus Thomas,” in World's Work, Vol. 18, August, 1909, pp. 11882-85.

In the following excerpt, Brooks interviews Thomas about his method of dramatic composition and about his idea of what makes a play specifically American.

Augustus Thomas is the most representative American playwright. He is the author of such plays as Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, In Mizzoura; and The Witching Hour, of last year, a new departure from his previous work, and, in fact, from all traditions of the stage. His plays, which now number more than twenty, are so widely known that probably half the people in the United States who have ever seen a play at all have seen one of them.

Mr. Thomas was born in St. Louis in 1859. He was a reporter and a law student. And for a time he worked in the freight department of a railroad. He is enthusiastic in political beliefs. It...