Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

Goodman, Matthew. Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World. New York: Ballantine. 2013. Print

First Sentences:

"Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Western Pennsylvania on May 5, 1864, although confusion about her exact age would persist throughout her life -- a good deal of that confusion engineered by Bly herself, for she was never quite as young as she claimed to be.

When she began her race around the world, in November of 1889, Bly was twenty-five years old, but estimates of her age among the nation's newspapers ranged from twenty to twenty-four; according to her own newspaper, The World, she was "about twenty-three.'"

Description:

In 1869 when the Suez Canal opened linking Europe and Asia, the idea of circumnavigating the globe via boat and train seemed an exciting new possibility. After consulting existing timetables and available transportation, two French journalists proposed an 80-day itinerary to complete the journey.

Jules Verne seized onto this idea in his Around the World in Eighty Days, first serialized in 1872 in a French newspaper and then published as a book the next year. But the idea of someone actually putting this imaginary itinerary into action was extensively debated for many years. 

In 1889, two women writers, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, working for rival publications, set out on just such a trip. Their adventures are fascinatingly recounted by Matthew Goodman in his newest book, Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World. 

Painstakingly researched and documented, Goodman paints a highly-detailed picture of this rapidly changing, male-dominated era, and these two enterprising women who seek to explore it and prove themselves equal to any male traveler.

Nellie Bly (pen name of Elizabeth Cochran) had only recently been hired by the New York newspaper The World as a reporter, not just a writer of fashion and society happenings. She wrote first-hand accounts of her experiences with the real world: checking into an insane asylum as a patient to report its horrendous conditions; learning to ice skate; riding a bicycle (a recent invention); hypnotizing people; interviewing Wild West show women; and watching female medical students perform human dissections. All were very new, exciting stories in the 1880s. Her popularity was immense.

As an idea for another daring story, Bly convinced her editors she could circumnavigate the globe in 75 days, five days quicker than Verne's Phileas Fogg. Her editor at The World decided to back her before anyone else could gain publicity (and any revenues) from a similar undertaking. 

After only two days' preparation, she began her trip with one small satchel, one dress which she wore, $2,500 in American gold, and 200 British pounds. Bly planned to sail from New York to Southhampton, then on to Brindisi, Italy by train, then by sea to Hong Kong, Yokohama, and San Francisco where she would take a train to New York. 

On the day of Nellie Bly's departure, the owner of the rival New York journal, The Cosmopolitan, first read of this adventure and immediately decided The Cosmopolitan, too, would send a woman around the world and beat Bly. Elizabeth Bisland, the quiet writer of the journal's "In the Library" column, was summoned to his office that same morning as Bly's sailing, given the idea, and agreed to board a westbound train that same evening, heading for San Francisco and then around the world in the opposite direction from Bly.

Bly and Bisland were followed by accounts in both periodicals, and termed the "Globe Girdlers" (after Shakespeare's fairy Puck who "put a girdle round about the earth" in A Midsummer's Night Dream). Of course, they encountered numerous problems and delays along the way, from snow storms in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to violent seas causing slowdowns of boats and sea sickness among Bly and Bisland alike. Bly felt her ocean voyages proved the truth behind the old adage:

"Those suffering from seasickness believe they will die on the first day, are sure they will on the second, and hope they will on the third."

Goodman provides absolutely fascinating details throughout the book regarding this new world, from jinrikisha rides in Ceylon, the luxuries of first class travel, and the deprivations of steerage passengers, to a meeting with Jules Verne, and an emergency rescue by first-time skiers trekking eight hours over mountains and 30' deep snow. Each leg of the trip, each destination, each encounter with the world's people were completely new to these women and their readers, so subscriptions to The World and The Cosmopolitan soared as the public hungered for more details of their trips.

Here is just a smattering of information Goodman provides along the route:

• Prior to the transcontinental railway opening, each state could create its own time zones (Illinois and Wisconsin both had more than 20 different time zones). To coordinate railroad timetables, the General Time Convention met in 1883 and "divided the country into four time zones, corresponding to the mean sun times at the meridians near Philadelphia, Memphis, Denver, and Fresno." This was all done without the consent of Congress, the courts, or the president. On November 18, 1883, "clocks across the country were changed to the new railroad standard" so that Sunday became known as "the day of two noons."

• Bly never found an establishment worldwide that refused English banknotes, nor one that accepted American money. She also could get by perfectly well speaking only English in all locales.

• Over 927,000 coupons were submitted to The World from readers trying to guess the exact arrival time and win a free trip to Europe. Coupons were only available to those who bought a copy of The World, of course. The winner was only 2/5 of a second off the actual travel time.

• After race was over, ten new editions of Around the World in 80 Days were issued, and a theatrical version was revived.

Goodman provides follow up details about Bly's and Bisland's lives once their trips were completed, relating the after-effects of their travels and their personal and professional careers up until their deaths. By the end, readers will intimately know these women, their era, and the physical and social worlds they explored.

Fascinating, informative, and nail-biting in tension from the first to the last pages. Not to be missed by any historian and/or traveler.  

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Verne, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days 

The classic adventure story from 1873 detailing the meticulous Phileas Fogg's circumnavigation of the globe to win a bet worth half his fortune.

Wisner, Franz. Honeymoon with My Brother 

When left at the altar holding extensive non-refundable travel reservations for his honeymoon, the ex-groom-to-be settles on traveling to these romantic spots with his photographer brother instead. Lots of fun, great writing, and interesting travel insights (First Suggestion - throw away all guidebooks and just ask natives for help and recommendations. Seemed to work for them).