From the award-winning picture book biographer of Woody Guthrie comes the inspirational story of Nellie Bly. Born in 1864, during a time in which options were extremely limited for women, Nellie defied all expectations and became a famous newspaper correspondent. Her daring exploits included committing herself to an infamous insane asylum in New York City to expose the terrible conditions there and becoming the first American war correspondent of either sex to report on the front lines of Austria during World War I. In 1889, Nellie completed her most publicized stunt, her world-famous trip around the world in just 72 days, beating the record of Jules Vernes’ fictional hero in Around the World in 80 Days. With an informative text and pen-and-ink illustrations reminiscent of the graphic style of the late 1800s, The Daring Nellie Bly captures the independent spirit of America’s first star reporter, Nellie Bly.
The remarkable story of one of the great pioneering women adventures of the 19th century. Intrepid journalist Nellie Bly raced through a ‘man’s world’ — alone and literally with just the clothes on her back — to beat the fictional record set by Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days. She won the race on 25 January 1890, covering 21,740 miles by ocean liner and train in 72 days, and became a global celebrity. Although best known for her record-breaking journey, even more importantly Nellie Bly pioneered investigative journalism and paved the way for women in the newsroom. Her undercover reporting, advocacy for women's rights, crusades for vulnerable children, campaigns against oppression and steadfast conviction that 'nothing is impossible' makes the world that she circled a better place. Adventurer, journalist and author, Rosemary J Brown, set off 125 years later to retrace Nellie Bly’s footsteps in an expedition registered with the Royal Geographical Society. Through her recreation of that epic global journey, she brings to life Nellie Bly’s remarkable achievements and shines a light on one of the world's greatest female adventurers and a forgotten heroine of history.
First published between 1887 and 1890, Women in Journalism – The Best of Nellie Bly is an insightful volume containing all of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman’s best journalistic works, including the famous exposé, Ten Days in a Mad-House. Women in Journalism includes the most shocking and captivating reports that Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman wrote during her journalistic career. The pioneering columnist inspired a new era of journalism - girl stunt reporting. Many female journalists began to put themselves in the midst of the action, narrating their experiences in popular novel-like reports. Using this style of writing, Bly puts her readers in the midst of the adventure by providing first-hand accounts of her exploits. From her time tracing the footsteps of Jules Verne’s fictional character, Phileas Fogg, in Around the World in Seventy-Two Days to her account of real life inside a women’s mental institution in Ten Days in a Mad-House, Bly tackles her work hands-on, focusing on revealing the often horrifying truth to her readers. This volume encompasses the breadth of Nellie Bly’s journalistic career, with its contents including: - Elizabeth Cochrane - Ten Days in a Mad-House - Trying to Be a Servant - Nellie Bly as a White Slave - Six Months in Mexico - Around the World in Seventy-Two Days Read & Co. Books has republished Women in Journalism – The Best of Nellie Bly in this beautiful new edition as part of the Brilliant Women series. This imprint celebrates the trailblazing women in history by offering a unique insight into their work and legacies. This volume is not to be missed by collectors of Bly’s work or lovers of immersive travel writing.
One of Amazon’s Best Books of 2022 So Far! “Gloriously recommended.” —Historical Novel Society A gripping and compelling novel based on the true story of fearless reporter Nellie Bly, who will stop at nothing to prove that a woman’s place is on the front page. In 1887 New York City, Nellie Bly has ambitions beyond writing for the ladies pages, but all the editors on Newspaper Row think women are too emotional, respectable and delicate to do the job. But then the New York World challenges her to an assignment she'd be mad to accept and mad to refuse: go undercover as a patient at Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum for women. For months, rumors have been swirling about deplorable conditions at Blackwell’s but no reporter can get in—that is, until Nellie feigns insanity, gets herself committed and attempts to survive ten days in the madhouse. Once inside, Nellie befriends her fellow patients who help her uncover shocking truths about the asylum. It’s a story that promises to be explosive—but will she get out before rival reporters get the scoop? From USA Today bestselling author Maya Rodale comes a witty, energetic and uplifting novel about a woman who defied convention to become the most famous reporter in Gilded Age New York. Perfect for fans of hidden histories about women who triumph.
Now in paperback--the acclaimed biography of Nellie Bly, the "thrilling account of a trailblazer" (Pat Morrison, Los Angeles Times Book Review). "Kroeger's biography of Nellie Bly moves at almost as fast a pace as did Bly's remarkable life."--Mindy Spatt, San Francisco Chronicle. Photos & illustrations. "From the Trade Paperback edition.
A visual biography of the groundbreaking investigative journalist Born in 1864, Nellie Bly was a woman who did not allow herself to be defined by the time she lived in, she rewrote the narrative and made her own way. Luciana Cimino’s meticulously researched graphic-novel biography tells Bly’s story through Miriam, a fictionalized female student at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1921. While interviewing the famous journalist, Miriam learns not only about Bly's more sensational adventures, but also about her focus on self-reliance from an early age, the scathing letter to the editor that jump-started her career as a newspaper columnist, and her dedication to the empowerment of women. In fact, in 1884, Bly was one of the few journalists who interviewed Belva Ann Lockwood, who was the first woman candidate for a presidential election—a contest that was ultimately won by Grover Cleveland—and Bly predicted correctly that women would not get the vote until 1920. Of course Bly’s most well-known exploits are also covered—how she pretended to be mad in order to get institutionalized so she could carry out an undercover investigation in an insane asylum, and Bly's greatest feat of all, her journey around the world in 72 days—alone—which was unthinkable for a woman in the late 19th century. As Miriam learns more of Bly's story, she realizes that the most important stories are necessarily the ones with the most dramatic headlines, but the ones that, in Nellie’s words, “come from a deep feeling.” This beautifully executed graphic novel paints a portrait of a woman who defied societal expectations—not only with her investigative journalism, but with her keen mind for industry, and her original inventions.
“She was part of the ‘stunt girl’ movement that was very important in the 1880s and 1890s as these big, mass-circulation yellow journalism papers came into the fore.” –Brooke Kroeger Around the World in Seventy-Two Days (1890) is a travel narrative by American investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Proposed as a recreation of the journey undertaken by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), Bly’s journey was covered in Joseph Pulitzer’s popular newspaper the New York World, inspiring countless others to attempt to surpass her record. At the time, readers at home were encouraged to estimate the hour and day of Bly’s arrival, and a popular board game was released in commemoration of her undertaking. Embarking from Hoboken, noted investigative journalist Nellie Bly began a voyage that would take her around the globe. Bringing only a change of clothes, money, and a small travel bag, Bly travelled by steamship and train through England, France—where she met Jules Verne—Italy, the Suez Canal, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. Sending progress reports via telegraph, she made small reports back home while recording her experiences for publication upon her return. Despite several setbacks due to travel delays in Asia, Bly managed to beat her estimated arrival time by several days despite making unplanned detours, such as visiting a Chinese leper colony, along the way. Unbeknownst to Bly, her trip had inspired Cosmopolitan’s Elizabeth Brisland to make a similar circumnavigation beginning on the exact day, launching a series of copycat adventures by ambitious voyagers over the next few decades. Despite being surrounded by this air of popularity and competition, however, Bly took care to make her journey worthwhile, showcasing her skill as a reporter and true pioneer of investigative journalism. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Nellie Bly’s Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is a classic work of American travel literature reimagined for modern readers.
Documents the 1889 competition between feminist journalist Nellie Bly and Cosmopolitan reporter Elizabeth Bishop to beat Jules Verne's record and each other in a round-the-globe race, offering insight into their respective daunting challenges as recorded in their reports sent back home. 50,000 first printing.
The first study of the role of the newspaperwoman in American literary culture at the turn of the twentieth century, this book recaptures the imaginative exchange between real-life reporters like Nellie Bly and Ida B. Wells and fictional characters like Henrietta Stackpole, the lady-correspondent in Henry James's Portrait of a Lady. It chronicles the exploits of a neglected group of American women writers and uncovers an alternative reporter-novelist tradition that runs counter to the more familiar story of gritty realism generated in male-dominated newsrooms. Taking up actual newspaper accounts written by women, fictional portrayals of female journalists, and the work of reporters-turned-novelists such as Willa Cather and Djuna Barnes, Jean Marie Lutes finds in women's journalism a rich and complex source for modern American fiction. Female journalists, cast as both standard-bearers and scapegoats of an emergent mass culture, created fictions of themselves that far outlasted the fleeting news value of the stories they covered. Front-Page Girls revives the spectacular stories of now-forgotten newspaperwomen who were not afraid of becoming the news themselves—the defiant few who wrote for the city desks of mainstream newspapers and resisted the growing demand to fill women's columns with fashion news and household hints. It also examines, for the first time, how women's journalism shaped the path from news to novels for women writers.
★★★★★ - "David Blixt pens a heroine for the ages in "What Girls Are Good For," which follows the extraordinary career of pioneer newspaperwoman Nellie Bly. A pint-sized dynamo who refuses to stay in the kitchen, Nellie fights tooth and nail to make a name for herself as a journalist, battling complacent men, corrupt institutions, and her own demons along the way. This real-life Lois Lane had me cheering aloud as I turned the pages - simply a delight!" — Kate Quinn, NY Times Bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Rose Code "A well-crafted and thoughtful work of historical fiction." — Kirkus Reviews From Bestselling Author David Blixt: Nellie Bly has the story of a lifetime — if she can she survive to tell it! Step into the thrilling world of investigative journalism! This captivating novel takes you back in time to the 19th century, where pioneering undercover reporter Nellie Bly shatters barriers and defies expectations. Enraged by an article entitled ‘What Girls Are Good For’, Elizabeth Cochrane pens an angry letter to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, never imagining a Victorian newspaper would hire a woman reporter. Taking the name Nellie Bly, she struggles against the male-dominated industry, reporting stories no one else will tell — the stories of downtrodden women. Chased out of Mexico for revealing government corruption, her romantic advances rejected by a married colleague, Bly earns the chance to break into New York’s Newspaper Row if she can nab a major scoop — life inside a madhouse. Feigning madness, she dupes the court into committing her to the Insane Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. But matters on the Island are far worse than she ever dreamed. Stripped, drugged, beaten, she must endure a week of terror, reliving the darkest days of her childhood, in order to escape and tell the world her story. Only, at the end of the week, no rescue comes, and she fears she may be trapped forever... Based on the real-life events of Nellie Bly’s life and reporting, What Girls Are Good For is a tale of rage, determination, and triumph — all in the frame of a tiny Pennsylvania spitfire who refused to let the world change her, and changed the world instead. Praise for What Girls Are Good For: ★★★★★ — "With rich imagination and meticulous research, David Blixt has brought the hectic, exciting world of nineteenth-century journalism vividly to life. His Nellie Bly is determined, independent, crafty, irresistible -- a heroine any reader would be delighted to get to know." — Matthew Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of Eighty Days ★★★★★ — "Dramatic, engrossing, and spirited, What Girls Are Good For takes the reader straight to the heart of an unsung American hero--a feminist icon whose voice rings loud and true. This is a must-read for anyone who loves an underdog and celebrates justice; the perfect accompaniment for our present times." — Olivia Hawker, international bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night ★★★★★ — "Author David Blixt delivers a great story about Nellie before she exposes the horrors she endured during her stay at the asylum on Blackwell Island. The portrayal of Nellie Bly in What Girls Are Good For is astonishing and doesn’t give you the fake twists and turns and add-ons that a lot of historical fiction does. The characters are likable and I feel that Blixt did a wonderful job of capturing Nellie’s voice and personality in his words. I would love to read more of his work. Without a doubt, the best book I have read this month!" — Readers' Favorite 5-Star Review
