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Nellie Bly
Her childhood[edit | edit source]
Elizabeth Cochrane was born on May 5, 1864, in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania. She had fifteen brothers and sisters, it was a big family!
Her father died in 1870 when she was six years old. As a child, she saw her mother trying to save her family from a disastrous marriage. Her father-in-law was rich but he was alcoholic and violent. Without a caregiver, Elisabeth had to give up her studies.
She was very young and destined to become a governess. But she refused this future. She showed a certain literary talent. At 16, outraged by a misogynistic article from the Pittsburgh Dispatch, she wrote a letter that she signed "the lonely orphan". She launched a challenge to the editor she met. If she wrote an article that he deemed excellent, he would be forced to hire her.
Her career[edit | edit source]
Nellie Bly was a journalist, novelist and inventor.
At the beginning, she did not think about becoming a journalist. She began her career when she sent a letter to a magazine to denounce an editorial « What girls are good for ». She signed « the lonely orphan » which became her pen name during her career.
The director of the newspaper wanted to meet her. She was hired and she chose the pseudonym Nellie Bly. She went to Mexico as a correspondent.
She decided to accept an undercover assignment in a madhouse to denounce the ill-treatments of women. In the madhouse, she discovered the medical staff gave the patients rotten flesh and dirty water. The buildings were infested with mice. The patients had to take cold baths and they were beaten. She came out after ten days and she told the horrors she experienced in a book, «Ten days in a madhouse».
She infiltrated a network of drugs dealers. She beat the record of Jules Verne, since she traveled around the world in seventy-two days. She told her story in a book. «Around The World in seventy-two days», published in 1890.
She was a pioneer of investigative journalism.
Her private life[edit | edit source]
The «stunts girls» became fashionable. Some girls were the assistants of a lion tamer, human targets for the shooters of Winchester… For Nellie Bly after all these adventures, it was difficult for her to go back to everyday life. She fell into drugs and alcohol.
In 1895, she married Robert Seaman, a millionaire industrialist. She became then Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seaman. She retired from journalism and the couple enjoyed a happy wedding. Her husband died in 1904.