“I said I could and I would. And I did.”

I learned about Nellie Bly the way I learn about most rule breaking, history making and forgotten women in history- through Drunk History. I was surprised to see that my library had Ten Days in a Mad House since it is essentially just her 1887 newspaper article. After reading Mad House, and really liking it, I sought out Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and found it for .99 on Kindle. I was less enthralled by Around the World- it’s pretty racist (a product of “the time”).

Ten Days in a Mad House is the superior Bly book. Nellie details her journey into being committed, she had to get legally sent away or else she’d blow her cover, by showing up at boarding house with little money, rambling about her lost trunks and not sleeping overnight. The matron of the boarding house took Bly, going by Nellie Brown, to the police and she was committed by a judge. Ten Days details her subsequent time in Blackwell Island Insane Asylum and the grand jury investigation into her finding. Her expose went a long way into psychiatric care reform by highlighting the unsanitary conditions, the inedible food and the cruel nurses.

“If I fail, I will never return to New York,” I would say despondently; “I would rather go in dead and successful than alive and behind time.”

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is the longer of the two stories but its interesting premise is tarnished by the crude language towards the native people Nellie comes across in her travels. Bly, who had previously pitched a similar but faster journey, is tasked by her publisher with besting Jules Verne’s story on one days notice. It is a publicity stunt, for sure, but Bly jumps in with both feet. She packs light and sets out on her trip with laser focus on completing her mission; her one deviation is visiting Verne himself in France. There are various delays to Bly’s journey and a little over halfway through her trip Bly is given the news that another woman is trying to beat her record but Bly comes out triumphant.

The biggest takeaway I got from Around the World, besides how casual racism could be in the late 19th century, is how far we’ve come in travel. I mean, with planes, this trip could be completed in less than a week and in seventy-two days you could visiting even more countries and take more time absorbing the culture!