Around the World in 72.25 Days - January 25, 2010

 

 

One hundred and twenty years ago today, a spunky young journalist completed an around-the-world journey, racing to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Setting speed records along the way, the circumnavigation was an impressive eight days faster than Fogg's literary trip. More impressive, though, was that the intrepid traveler was a 25-year-old woman, traveling alone in a time when such a thing was unheard of.

Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Cochran in 1864) was already a celebrity in the news business when she set out to break the fictional Fogg's travel speed. The self-taught writer from rural Pennsylvania began her career in journalism when she responded to a sexist Pittsburgh Dispatch column with a passionate and forceful letter to the editor. Intrigued, the editor asked to meet Cochran, and she soon joined the paper's staff. Writing under the nom de plume "Nellie Bly" (female journalists of the day were expected to use pen names), she went undercover in sweat shops and factories, exposing dangerous and unfair treatment of workers. When advertisers complained about her exposés, she was relegated to the society pages and promptly quit the paper.

She moved to New York City and finagled a meeting with the editor of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, where she proposed a daring plan: she would feign insanity to go undercover at Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum, an institution notorious for its brutality, and expose the conditions there. The stunt got her hired, and her report on her ten horrifying days in the asylum not only got the world's attention, but led to an investigation of Blackwell's Island, and a $850,000 increase in funding to care for the mentally ill. It also made her a superstar among reporters and opened the door for her next big stunt.

When Bly pitched her idea of beating Phileas Fogg's 'round-the-world time, the newspaper loved the idea -- but scoffed at the thought of a woman pulling it off. A woman would need an escort, they argued, and would carry too much luggage. They would send a man instead. Bly responded that she would race against whatever man they sent -- for another newspaper -- and win. The New York World relented, and Bly set off from Hoboken on November 14, 1889 -- unescorted, carrying only one small case.

By her own account, she traveled 21,740 miles (not including the 179.5-mile detour she took to visit Jules Verne himself, in Amiens, France) at the blinding average speed of 28.71 miles per hour. When she returned to New York 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes later, she was greeted as a celebrity by cheering crowds. Her exploits inspired trading cards and board games, ushered in a new era of investigative journalism, and inspired generations of girls to compete against boys -- and win.

Suggested Sites...

• Around the World in Seventy-Two Days - the text of Bly's account of her record-setting adventure.
• Brooke Kroeger's Nellie Bly: Daredevil + Reporter + Feminist - excerpts from Kroeger's biography of the pioneering journalist, focusing on her work in Blackwell's Island Madhouse.
• Miss Nellie Bly Special - an account of the record-breaking train that carried the journalist from Oakland to Chicago.
• Around the World in 72 Days - an interactive map showing Bly's route around the world.