“On
the wagon sped, and I, as well as my comrades, gave a despairing farewell
glance at freedom as we came in sight of the long stone buildings.”
– Nellie Bly
That quote came from the beginning of
one of the most harrowing experiences a writer can put herself into –
undercover reporting in a dangerous setting. And while it
marked the start of a two-week living nightmare, it also marked the beginning
of a reporting career that would catapult her into the role of the most famous
reporter of her day.
Nellie Bly, born on this day in 1864
as Elizabeth Jane Cochran, not only set the standards for how undercover
journalism should be done, but she also excited the imagination of the nation
and the world with the things she was willing to do, putting her body on the
line to “get the story and bring the truth to the world.”
The opening quote above came from
her smuggled notes out of the infamous Blackwell’s Island, a New York insane
asylum in the 1880s. Her reporting from there blew the lid off the terrible
ways the inmates were treated and led to vast reforms. It was just the first of many, many things
that this diminutive and imaginative reporter would do, including traveling around
the world alone to attempt to break the record of the fictional Phileas Fogg in
Jules Verne’s book Around The World in 80
Days. She did it in just over 72
days.
Bly is a key character – if not THE
key character – in my new book And The
Wind Whispered, set in 1894. I’ve
strived hard to keep the character true to the fortitude and actions of this amazing woman. The Amazing Nellie Bly was her title in those
days. It still applies today, and the reporting
world can be thankful that she was there to pave the way.
Nellie Bly
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