The famous American journalist Nellie bly, pseudonym of Elizabeth cochrane, also spelled Cochran, was born on May 5, 1864, in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania, USA.
Elizabeth cochran (later added a final “e” to Cochran) received little formal schooling. She began her career in 1885 in her native Pennsylvania as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, to whom she had sent an angry letter to the editor in response to an article the newspaper had printed, titled “What Girls Are Good For” (not much according to the article) . The editor was so impressed with his writing that he gave him a job.
It was for The Dispatch that he began using the pseudonym “Nellie bly“, taken from a popular song by Stephen Foster. Her early articles, on the conditions of Pittsburgh working girls, life in the slums, and other similar topics, marked her as a reporter of wit and concern. At one point in time that a woman’s contribution to a newspaper was generally limited to “women’s pages” was given to Cochrane a rare opportunity to report on broader topics. In 1886–87 he traveled for several months through Mexico, submitting reports on official corruption and the condition of the poor. His strongly critical articles angered Mexican officials and led to his expulsion from the country. The articles were later collected in Six months in Mexico (1888).
In 1887, Cochrane He left Pittsburgh for New York to work for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. One of his first undercover jobs for that newspaper was to enter the Blackwell Island Asylum (now Roosevelt), feigning insanity. His exposition of conditions among patients, published in the World and later compiled in Ten Days in a Mad House (1887), precipitated a grand jury investigation into asylum and helped bring about needed improvements in patient care. Similar informal strategies led her to sweatshops, prisons, and the legislature (where she exposed bribery in the lobbying system). She was by far the best known journalist of her time.
The climax of his career in the World began on November 14, 1889, when he sailed from New York to break the record for
Phileas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne’s romance Around the World in Eighty Days. The World built history by publishing daily articles and a guessing contest in which whoever came closest to naming Cochrane’s time to circle the world would get a trip to Europe. There were almost a million entries in the contest. Cochrane rode boats and trains, rickshaws and sampans, horses and donkeys. On the last lap of her journey, the World transported her from San Francisco to New York on a special train; she was greeted everywhere by marching bands and fireworks. His time was 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes 14 seconds. The feat made her famous. The book of
Nellie bly,
Around the world in seventy-two days (1890) was a great popular success, and the name of
Nellie bly became synonymous with star reporter.
Nellie bly she married millionaire Robert Seaman in 1895, but suffered financial setbacks after his death, and returned to journalism at the New York Journal in 1920.