A journalist in the footsteps of Jules Verne...!


On November 14, 1889, New York journalist Nellie Blye ...



... embarks on a very unusual journey:

She has it in her head to actually make the fictional journey that the writer Jules Verne describes in his book "Around the World in 80 Days" - using the same means of transport that the author used for his hero Phileas Fogg in can actually take away from the book!



The woman's real name is Elizabeth Jane Cochrane and she has adopted the pseudonym "Nellie Blye" for her well-known investigative reports, under which she also publishes for the newspaper "The New Yorker".

She begins the journey of more than 32,800 kilometers on November 14, 1889 in New York and travels via England, Jules Verne's place of residence Amiens, Brindisi in Italy, Colombo in Ceylon, Hong Kong, China, Japan and San Francisco.

After 72 days, six hours, eleven minutes and 14 seconds, she completed the journey in what was then the record time on January 25, 1890.



Nellie Blye (let's stick with her pseudonym!) is the first woman to embark on such a journey unaccompanied by a man, making her a role model for many women.

The next picture shows her returning to New York...:



Afterwards she writes a book about her adventure - which is unfortunately almost forgotten today...:



She then continued her journalistic career, during the First World War she worked as a war correspondent - here in Poland (with an Austrian military cap!) in a conversation with a KuK officer after the fall of Przemysl Fortress...:





In 1922, Nellie Bly died of pneumonia at the age of 57.:



The courageous woman, a role model of her generation, is buried in Woodlawn Cemetary at New York...:




Foto

Thanks Martin for this very interesting piece. Highly educational. Now I only have to find a copy of her book...

Karl