Nellie Bly

Published in 1890 under the pseudonym Nellie Bly, "Around the World in Seventy-Two Days" is the true account by journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran of her daring trip around the world. Inspired by Jules Verne's book "Around the World in Eighty Days", Bly proposed to her newspaper editor that she undertake a similar adventure. On November 14, 1889, she boarded a steamer ship in New York with the goal of completing her journey in 75 days. Travelling with very little, Bly journeyed first to England and then on across Europe and Asia by ship and train. Bly was able to send many brief updates by telegraph and sent longer letters by post that often took weeks to reach New York. A rival newspaper, the "Cosmopolitan", sent a reporter of their own in the opposite direction to try and beat Bly, which Bly only learned of once she arrived in Hong Kong. While Bly had been delayed in Asia, she arrived back in New York nearly three days ahead of schedule and completed her amazing odyssey to worldwide amazement. The tale of her bold adventure remains an exciting and fascinating account of a woman who dared convention and succeeded. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

At the age of 23, pioneering reporter Nellie Bly faked dementia in order to expose abuses of patients in Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York City. Such investigative journalism was unusual in 1887 — almost as rare as women reporters. Bly's subsequent articles created a sensation, exposing the rampant psychological and physical mistreatment of inmates, many of whom were not mentally ill but simply recent immigrants and other impoverished individuals without social support. Her accounts led directly to significant increases in funding and improvements in asylum management. Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Nellie Bly (1864-1922) reported on inequalities women faced in the workplace and in the legal system, and she served as a foreign correspondent in Mexico. Two years after her undercover work at Blackwell's Island Asylum, Bly circled the globe to test the feasibility of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days — and beat the fictional record by eight days. This new edition of her groundbreaking reports from the asylum features 17 period illustrations from the original publication.

Ten Days in A Madhouse is the true account of investigative journalist Nellie Bly's confinement inside an insane asylum. In 1887 the young female reporter entered the asylum under the guise of insanity to investigate rumors of brutality and neglect at the infamous Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York City. The asylum was underfunded, grossly overcrowded, and plagued with scandal. In the 1880s the mentally insane were not treated as patients but as dangerous lunatics that had to be controlled by force, confined to cells, and kept out of the public eye. Before Bly began her investigation, famed author Charles Dickens, visited the institution and wrote, "...everything had a lounging, listless, madhouse air, which was very painful. The moping idiot, cowering down with long disheveled hair; the gibbering maniac, with his hideous laugh and pointed finger; the vacant eye, the fierce wild face, the gloomy picking of the hands and lips, and munching of the nails: there they were all, without disguise, in naked ugliness and horror." Once committed, she found it near impossible to get out. "From the moment I entered the insane ward on the Island," writes Bly, "I made no attempt to keep up the assumed role of insanity. I talked and acted just as I do in ordinary life. Yet strange to say, the more sanely I talked and acted, the crazier I was thought to be by all...." Now trapped, Bly was tormented with rotted food, cruel attendants, and cramped and diseased conditions. After talking with other patients she became convinced many were just as sane as she was. In fact, the staff of the asylum, some of which were convicts from the nearby prison, was more frightening than the inmates. She was unable to convince the doctors she was not a lunatic and to let her free. Only with the aid of her editor was she able to escape and write about her harrowing experience trapped inside a madhouse.

Nellie Bly was one of America's best-known female journalists in the 19th century. She was a pioneer in the field of investigative journalism and gained fame going undercover as a patient in an insane asylum and by setting a world's record racing around the world. Inspired by Jules Verne's bestselling novel Around the World in 80 Days, Bly set out to better Verne's fictional hero Phileas Fogg by traveling the 25,000 mile journey around the world in less than 80 days. Her travels were chronicled by her newspaper, the New York World. Up until this time, circling the world in such a short time had never actually been attempted. Hearing of Bly's around the world attempt, a competing newspaper the Cosmopolitan, sponsored its own reporter to beat the times of both Fogg and Bly. The race was on. Setting off on the same day, both reporters took advantage of any and all modes of travel available to them in the 1880s. Bly traveled from New York to Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and across the American frontier completing the race in just 72 days beating her rival and establishing a world's record. This book chronicles her travels and adventures as she emulates Fogg's harried race around the world.

Ten Days in A Madhouse is the true account of investigative journalist Nellie Bly's confinement inside an insane asylum. In 1887 the young female reporter entered the asylum under the guise of insanity to investigate rumors of brutality and neglect at the infamous Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York City. The asylum was underfunded, grossly overcrowded, and plagued with scandal. In the 1880s the mentally insane were not treated as patients but as dangerous lunatics that had to be controlled by force, confined to cells, and kept out of the public eye. Before Bly began her investigation, famed author Charles Dickens, visited the institution and wrote, "...everything had a lounging, listless, madhouse air, which was very painful. The moping idiot, cowering down with long disheveled hair; the gibbering maniac, with his hideous laugh and pointed finger; the vacant eye, the fierce wild face, the gloomy picking of the hands and lips, and munching of the nails: there they were all, without disguise, in naked ugliness and horror." Once committed, she found it near impossible to get out. "From the moment I entered the insane ward on the Island," writes Bly, "I made no attempt to keep up the assumed role of insanity. I talked and acted just as I do in ordinary life. Yet strange to say, the more sanely I talked and acted, the crazier I was thought to be by all...." Now trapped, Bly was tormented with rotted food, cruel attendants, and cramped and diseased conditions. After talking with other patients she became convinced many were just as sane as she was. In fact, the staff of the asylum, some of which were convicts from the nearby prison, was more frightening than the inmates. She was unable to convince the doctors she was not a lunatic and to let her free. Only with the aid of her editor was she able to escape and write about her harrowing experience trapped inside a madhouse.

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (May 5, 1864 - January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an expos in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism. Bly was also a writer, industrialist, inventor, and a charity worker. Ten Days in a Mad-House is a book by Nellie Bly. It was initially published as a series of articles for the New York World; Bly later compiled the articles into a book. The book was based on articles written while Bly was on an undercover assignment for the New York World, feigning insanity at a women's boarding house, so as to be involuntarily committed to an insane asylum. She then investigated the reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island. The book received acclaim from critics at the time. Accumulation of her reportage and the release of her content brought her fame and led to a grand jury investigation and financial increase in the Department of Public Charities and Corrections. (wikipedia.org)

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly. The book was based on articles written while Bly was on an undercover assignment for the New York World, feigning insanity at a women's boarding house, so as to be involuntarily committed to an insane asylum. She then investigated the reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island. Since my experiences in Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum were published in the World I have received hundreds of letters in regard to it. The edition containing my story long since ran out, and I have been prevailed upon to allow it to be published in book form, to satisfy the hundreds who are yet asking for copies. I am happy to be able to state as a result of my visit to the asylum and the exposures consequent thereon, that the City of New York has appropriated $1,000,000 more per annum than ever before for the care of the insane. So I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the poor unfortunates will be the better cared for because of my work.

In 1887, journalist Nellie Bly posed as a mentally ill, homeless woman in order to expose conditions at the Blackwell's Island asylum in New York City. Her descriptions of the neglect and abuse women residents endured shocked readers, prompted improvements in the treatment of the mentally ill, and remain a landmark in the history of investigative journalism.

In 1887, newspaper reporter Nellie Bly posed as a mentally ill, homeless woman in order to expose conditions at the Blackwell's Island insane asylum in New York City. Her account of the 10 days she spent in "a human rat trap" in which patients were routinely abused and neglected shocked readers and became a milestone of investigative journalism.

Nellie Bly (1864 - 1922) oli ensimmäisiä tutkivia journalisteja. Kymmenen päivää mielisairaalassa on Blyn selvitys siitä, kuinka mielenterveyden ongelmia hoidettiin 1800-lopun New Yorkissa. Reportaasiaan varten Bly kirjautui potilaana pahamaineiseen naisten mielisairaalaan, jonka lääkärit ja hoitajat eivät tienneet hänen olevan toimittaja. Blyn paljastukset johtivat merkittäviin uudistuksiin ja muutoksiin mielenterveyden hoidossa. Kymmenen päivää mielisairaalassa on merkkipaalu sekä tutkivan journalismin historiassa että mielenterveyden hoidossa ja sen kehityksessä.