Pulitzer, whose name now means excellence in journalism, via the prize that is awarded to the writers who do an exceptional job in journalism (I don't think bloggers get any chance, sadly) was the owner of a tabloid, and would run whatever could get sales of his paper.
He was going to send a man to challenge the 80 days story, as nearly 3 months of daily reports, from a grand adventure, would be sure to boost sales. When Nellie Bly heard of this, she insisted that she be sent instead, and threatened to do the stunt for the competition, faster than any man Pulitzer would send, if she weren't chosen.
“I approached my editor [at The World newspaper] rather timidly on the subject,” Bly said. “I was afraid that he would think the idea too wild and visionary.”
Nevertheless, she pitched traveling around the world to beat Fogg’s 80-day world record, and she hoped The World would host her. Cockerill informed her the idea had already been bandied around the newsroom and said the assignment was best suited for a male reporter who wouldn’t need to be chaperoned and wouldn’t drag along loads of suitcases.
She made such a convincing argument, what else could he do? but realize she was more motivated to succeed than anyone else that could be sent.
For 72 days, as she jumped cargo ships, trains, tugboats, and rickshaws, newspaper readers had been following her progress in one of the most highly publicized journeys of all time.
On November 14, 1889, she boarded a steam ship and began her 24,899-mile journey. She only had the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several changes of underwear and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry essentials. She carried most of her money (£200 in English bank notes and gold in total as well as some American currency) in a bag tied around her neck.
To hype the story, the newspaper organized a “Nellie Bly Guessing Match” in which readers were asked to estimate Nellie Bly’s arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize consisting at first of a free trip to Europe and, later on, spending money for the trip.
On her travels around the world by train, steamship, rickshaw, horse and donkey, Nellie Bly went through England, France (where she met Jules Verne in Amiens), Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo (Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Verne wished her luck, saying, "If you do it in seventy-nine days, I shall applaud with both hands."
When she'd traveled nearly all the way around the world, and arrived on the California coast, in San Francisco, she was greeted with a single-car train to speed her across the country, express, all the way, without the drag of all the extra cars slowing down the locomotive and wasting coal.
When The World newspaper did not give her a raise or even a bonus for her work after she returned, she resigned from her position at the newspaper. If she was to be a product, she would ensure that nobody else was making money off her.
At the time, Bly was 26 years old, single, and one of the most famous women in the world.
She launched a paid speaking tour to promote a memoir describing her experiences during the trip. When the World acquired new owners a few years later, they wooed her back with the salary and prestige she knew she deserved.
https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/nellie-bly-a-race-against-time
https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/brand-new-world-nelly-bly%27s-record-defying-travels
That's just one example of how cool she was, another is that during the strike at Pullman, Bly was the only writer to report on it, and she did so from the workers perspective.
Okay. Guy in the upper right corner of the game board. Donald Southerland. Right?
ReplyDeletelol, His grand dad maybe
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