Nellie Bly:: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist Hardcover – March 1, 1994

Nellie Bly (real name Elizabeth Jane Seaman nee Cochran) was a phenomenon of late 19th century, early 20th century American journalism. She was not the first female reporter and lived long enough to be considered quaint and outdated by the new breed of women that inhabited the newsrooms of the 1920s. Yet her influence on her profession cannot be denied.Bly — the name was chosen for her by an anonymous individual in the newsroom of the Pittsburgh Dispatch when the editor asked for ideas for her pen name (no one wrote under their own name in those days) — mixed a feisty daring with the cottish use of her feminine charms to twist the overwhelmingly male interview subjects around her little finger and get the stories she wanted.She was an aggressive self-promoter, filling her work with her own opinions and attitudes — and in an era when newspaper articles were measured in columns rather than inches and centimetres, wrote freely and at enormous length.She is mostly remembered for the stories in the early part of her career when she was queen of the ‘stunt girls’ — reporters sent out by their editors to undertake acts of daring that more often than not made news simply because they performed by young women.However, her assignment for the New York World when she went undercover as the inmate of a women’s lunatic asylum, exposing brutality and neglect, did lead to much-needed reforms.Perhaps her best known and loved ‘stunt’ was to circle the earth in less time than the then popular work of fiction Around the World in Eighty Days. Travelling by steamer and train, and beating off a challenge from a rival, she performed the feat in 72 days. It established her as the foremost female journalist of her day, able to command unheard of salaries for women and more or less decide which stories she covered.However, it was all downhill from there. She married a man more than 40 years her senior, went into business and spent most of the rest of her life in a succession of law suits as she tried to run her husband’s company after his death.She returned to journalism as a war correspondent during World War I, became a blatant apologist for the Austro-Hungarian Empire and ended up back in New York writing a matronly ‘agony aunt’ column for her old newspaper until her death from pneumonia, aged 57, in 1922.There have been books, films and plays about Bly, but Brooke Kroeger’s simply named Nellie Bly will surely rate as the definitive work. Decades in the making, Kroeger has spared no effort in researching libraries, newspaper files, births and deaths certificates, family histories and the memories of people who knew Bly, or knew people who did. It is very much a life’s work and a worthy tribute to a remarkable woman.

This was a very, very good biography. I learned a lot not only about Nellie Bly, but the times she lived in. It was fascinating to see this fascinating woman's life laid out on the page. Good for Kroeger for digging deeper and sharing the information with all of us! I wish the book could have been written 50 years earlier, so more sources could have been interviewed -- but Kroeger did a great job of digging into contemporary newspapers, finding letters, and looking at contemporary interviews. I enjoyed the book very much, and the details are going to help with my own novel.I read mine on a Kindle app, so the complaints I have are mostly related to the pictures. I wish the pictures were tagged a little more clearly so I could have popped from the photo directly to the Library of Congress or the source the pictures came from -- that way, I could have explored the context a little more, as well as had more freedom to expand the photo so I could check out details in dress and expression.Also, particularly after Nellie's marriage, the timeline becomes extremely convoluted. I could have used more hints in the texts saying when we were (instead of flipping back several pages or to the notes at the end). Perhaps a handy timeline on the author's website? I could keep the window open while I'm reading, and see where I was . . . . (I didn't see any mention of the author's website in the text, although there might have been one at the end. I'm still new to cyber-enhanced reading, so I didn't think of that until now.)Nellie Bly is well worth knowing more about, and this is a great introduction to her life and times.

Great read. I wanted to learn more about this resilient, brave, strong woman who knew what restraints she was working with as a woman journalist during a time period when women usually only wrote pretty sections for the household or fashion sections, and not serious reporting. It’s a tome so I’m not finished yet, but I look forward to reading it each time I sit down.

If you have not read the story of Nellie Bly, you should. If you think you already know the story of Nellie Bly, you don't.Journalism professor Brooke Kroeger's exceptional biography is thoroughly documented and thoroughly entertaining. A rare combination. Professor Kroeger fills in blanks, paints vivid pictures of her subject and the people she encountered, and gives Bly her rightful due as one of the real innovators in early American journalism.

I chose this book in no particular search in my Kindle. It looked and sounded an excellant read. Only after a page or two did I find out about the movie to play on Lifetime Vhannel on the 19th of January 2019. Now I am ready to enjoy that production.

This is probably a Middle School book, but it tells her story and all girls should learn how she succeeded. Grit, determination, and smarts go a long ways.

This is the only scholarly biography of Nellie Bly available. It is carefully researched and documented, and presents a nuanced and composite picture of Nellie Bly. It is not a splashy story, which is probably why the other reviewers found it dull and dry. For research purposes, however, that's a very good thing. An excellent bibliography points interested researchers to secondary and primary sources.

I found the book very interesting and informative. It told me many things about Bly that I did not know. It was easy reading.

Nellie Bly should be among the most famous women of all time, yet she's virtually forgotten. This book is a valiant effort to redress that situation, but could maybe have done with a bit more of Nellie's eye for the sensational - her life was absolutely sensational, so it wouldn't be a hard thing to do. A decent effort though, and the author should be commended for pursuing her elusive subject in as much detail as she has. An incredible story.

v good