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

Jules Verne really started something with his novel Around the World in Eighty Days, published in 1873.  The last half of the nineteenth century was a time of great technological advancement, and by 1888, brash investigative reporter Nellie Bly pitched the idea of beating Phileas Fogg's fictional time around the world to her boss at New York's The World newspaper.   He turned her down then, but promised that if they did ever decide to sponsor a reporter on this story, it would be Nellie.  It only took a year before pressure to be first with the story forced John Cockerill's hand and the race was on.  Not to be outdone, The Cosmopolitan, a New York-based magazine, sent their own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, on her own race around the world in the opposite direction.  Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World (#327) by Matthew Goodman tells the fascinating, but mostly forgotten story of these two women and their whirlwind race around the globe. 

I loved this book.  It's jam packed full of all kinds of odd bits and pieces of information about the places, personalities and politics that drove this great race.  Matthew Goodman alternates the story between Nellie's and Elizabeth's background and the legs if the race by dates to show just where in the world they are at roughly the same time, and their reactions to what they see and experience along the way.  And yes, you could look up the bare facts before you start reading, but Mr. Goodman does such a masterful job with the suspense of who will be first to return to New York City, you can feel the anxiety on the part of both ladies to achieve the victory. 

Nellie Bly, of course, does return first, which is why you may find her name familiar.  With her incredible trip, she became easily the most famous woman in America, drawing crowds on the final leg of her train trip across the United States which exceeded even those of Presidential trains.   If you're like me, though, you've probably never heard of Elizabeth Bisland, which is a shame.  The contrast in personalities and attitudes between these two women is enormous.  Although Nellie was already well-known for her daring exposes for The World, including a proposal to sail to England so she could return in steerage and report on the conditions endured by the immigrants coming to America, not once during her 72 day trip did she ever venture into steerage, or investigate the harsh and perilous conditions in the ships' boiler rooms as many other passengers routinely did.  She seems to have left her bump of curiosity at home, as nothing and no one she met on her travels could even come close to what she could find on the shores of America, and she did not hesitate to make her views known to all and sundry.  She particularly loathed the British, even though almost her entire trip was through ports and territories controlled by the British.  (I have met people like that on my own travels abroad, and it can be trying to  spend any time with them!)  Elizabeth, on the other hand, moved in more literary and artistic circles and was well known in her own way for her essays and book reviews.  She was summoned to her publisher's office on the morning of November 14, 1889, and found herself reluctantly on a west-bound train that very same night committed to circling the globe, the same day that Nellie Bly had departed.  She was charmed by what she saw, especially in the Far East, and embraced the chance to experience new things as she could.  How I envy her her first view of Mount Fuji in Japan as her ship steamed towards Yokohama.  She never in later life lost her love of the Orient, and returned there several times.  She also was an Anglophile and received an invitation to spend the next Season in England with Lady Broom, whom she had met and befriended in Ceylon, which she accepted.  Who was the real winner of this race?  I think that's debatable.

There are also a number of photographs and maps included in the text which help you to visualize what it must have been like for a woman alone to brave such a trip in winter.  The chapter notes (there are no footnotes) are also a wealth of little tidbits.  It's like mining for gold back there!

If you like travel; if you like American history; if you are interested in women's progress towards career equality; if you like gossip or just a cracking good story, Eighty Days has it all.  I can't recommend it highly enough!