skygiants | (no subject)

Apparently there's a DW revival going on, and definitely several new people following this journal; hello and welcome, new people! This shift to an alternate universe where everyone uses DW mostly seems to have happened while I was traveling, so it's a bit confusing, but I'm definitely enthusiastic about it.

Also while I was traveling, I read Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World, as recommended by

innerbrat. This turned out to be an excellent choice to read on a plane because no matter how many delays we hit, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were always having a much more difficult and stressful time traveling than I was.

I knew a bit about Nellie Bly already; in the 1880s she made a name for herself as one of very, very few big-name female reporters by undertaking such Adventures in Investigative Journalism as 'going undercover in an insane asylum,' 'going undercover in a charity hospital', and 'going undercover to buy a Congressman,' and, moreover, doing so while being a Plucky Young Girl Of But Twenty-Odd Summers.

One slow news day, while racking her brains for a suitable clickbait headline, Nellie Bly (real name Elizabeth Cochran) decided that it was time to try to beat the (fictional) Round the World in Eighty Days record.

NELLIE BLY'S EDITOR: If we send someone around the world by themselves, it's going to be a man.
NELLIE BLY, FAMOUSLY: "Start the man, and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him."

And thus Nellie Bly was promised the job of racing round the world, if it ever happened, which it didn't until a year later when sales at the World were declining enough that the clickbait potential of "THE WORLD SENDS YOUNG LADY ROUND THE WORLD" started to look extremely appealing. So! Nellie immediately set off for Europe, carrying a single handbag (she wanted to bring a spare dress, but it wouldn't fit in the handbag).

A few hours later, a rival paper, the Cosmpolitan, decided this was a GREAT IDEA and called up freelance poet and essayist Elizabeth Bisland.

ELIZABETH BISLAND'S EDITOR: Elizabeth Bisland, would you like to go around the world starting today immediately?
ELIZABETH BISLAND: .... I write for the literature column??
ELIZABETH BISLAND'S EDITOR: Yes but you're a woman who writes for the newspaper and we really don't have many of those onhand SO ....
ELIZABETH BISLAND: I have plans? Friends are coming to tea tomorrow? I hate the idea of being famous???

The Historical Record is unclear on exactly what Elizabeth Bisland's editor said to convince her to set off around the world in spite of these objections, but suggests that it may have involved arguments like 'if you go, we'll hire you full-time and you won't be freelance anymore!' and, conversely, 'if you don't go, we might not hire you anymore AT ALL.'

Thus: A RACE. Elizabeth Bisland heading westwards, towards California and then across the Pacific, with three or four trunks full of luggage; Nellie Bly already off East across the Atlantic, with her single handbag and no idea that she was actually having a race at all. (She didn't actually get the message until she was in Hong Kong and was NOT thrilled.)

The book follows the racers throughout their adventure, with various detours into the historical and cultural context through with they traveled -- including, significantly, the fact that their routes round the world depended entirely on the infrastructure of British Imperialism At Its Worst. (Somewhat hilariously, Nellie Bly seems to have come out of the experience so annoyed at the British as a whole that she signed up to report from Austria in WWI purely out of spite.)

Which is not to say that either Nellie or Elizabeth was a model of anti-Imperialist sentiment. Indeed, the author of this book spends a fair bit of time being mildly disappointed in Nellie Bly for missing all kinds of opportunities to do the kind of investigative progressive journalism for which she was previously known while she was traveling. Instead, Nellie seems to have spent most of her trip stressing about boat delays, fending off unwanted suitors, and complaining about the English.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Bisland, who didn't want to be traveling in the first place, hit Japan and was like 'travel is great! foreign lands are beautiful! I love adventure! can I just be a travel writer now?'

...and meanwhile meanwhile, the book's author would like to take the opportunity to remind us that the Opium Wars that let Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland visit China were extremely bad, being a stoker on one of the steam-ships that took Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland across the ocean was a terrible career that often led straight to an early grave, and generally nineteenth-century Imperialism was just the absolute worst. Which I do appreciate!

The story of the race itself is absolutely compelling, but the best actual fact I learned from this book was that after Nellie Bly made herself and The World famous, LOTS of papers started employing 'stunt girls' - female reporters, often multiple women writing under a shared pen name - to perform Daring Journalistic Exploits. Why is there not already a trashy-but-compelling costume television series about a ring of nineteenth-century stunt girls going undercover and having adventures? SOMEONE GET ON THIS.

Threaded | Flat

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Bisland, who didn't want to be traveling in the first place, hit Japan and was like 'travel is great! foreign lands are beautiful! I love adventure! can I just be a travel writer now?'

Did she?

I am considering reading this, having enjoyed your writeup a lot.

THAT WOULD BE AMAZING WHY CAN'T WE HAVE THE NICE THING

I had no idea shared pen names were a thing at that time period.

Also, I now want to read the reporting by Elizabeth Bisland

Basically your write-ups on books are the best. I don't care about non-fiction in the slightest and it's almost never compelling to me, but I love reading what you have to say about it. Funny how that works.

I have this! I need to read it, it sounds super fun.

the best actual fact I learned from this book was that after Nellie Bly made herself and The World famous, LOTS of papers started employing 'stunt girls' - female reporters, often multiple women writing under a shared pen name - to perform Daring Journalistic Exploits. Why is there not already a trashy-but-compelling costume television series about a ring of nineteenth-century stunt girls going undercover and having adventures?

....I FEEL I HAVE MISSED MY CALLING

Ooh, this sounds like great fun! I knew about Nellie Bly but not Elizabeth Bisland.

I would watch that series!

I would totally watch that show.

This sounds awesome, definitely adding to the list. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, I really want this series now and am deeply saddened that it doesn't exist?? It doesn't even have to be television, I'll take any version!!

The show I want is set slightly later and is about Harry Houdini's crack team of girl psychic fraud investigators in the 1920s, but I would watch yours, too!

Edited 2018-12-06 15:44 (UTC)

Neat! This is giving me ideas about wanting to write Vesper Holly fanfic, though it would be so much work to research properly...

Oh my goodness, that TV series would be a DREAM--I'm imagining it would air on BBC for a season or two before being picked up by Netflix, and Heidi Thomas would write and produce. Also, I knew about Nelly Bly's trip around the world, but wasn't aware that it was actually a competition--that on its own would make a fantastic movie/miniseries!

I would absolutely watch that TV series!

Why is there not already a trashy-but-compelling costume television series about a ring of nineteenth-century stunt girls going undercover and having adventures? SOMEONE GET ON THIS.

A TRAGEDY

Why is there not already a trashy-but-compelling costume television series about a ring of nineteenth-century stunt girls going undercover and having adventures? SOMEONE GET ON THIS.

WHY DOES THIS NOT EXIST now that you've suggested it, it is all that I want in life, and there's no where to find it, WOE.

a trashy-but-compelling costume television series about a ring of nineteenth-century stunt girls going undercover and having adventures?

I would read ALL THE BOOKS on this premise, this is amazing

This is great, thanks for sharing it! I had heard of Nellie Bly, but not all the details. And I think these two were probably an inspiration to one of my faves, Swedish journalist Barbro Alving, who also went around the world but much later (mid-20th century), and who reported from the Spanish civil war while pregnant, and stuff like that.