“I have never written a word that did not come from my heart. I never shall.”
Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, better known as Nellie Bly, was an American journalist, inventor and a charity worker. What made her life worth giving a read was her record- breaking trip around the world in 72 days and her famous Asylum expose. During this, she worked as an undercover agent to prepare a report on the conditions and ways of mental institutions. She was a pioneer in the field of journalism and launched a new of its kind, namely, Investigative journalism. She was always very curious about what went inside the mental asylums and whether the information they provided about themselves was true or not.

 

The result of this operation came out to be exactly what she feared of. Bly’s operation exposed a series of inhumane abuses at the asylum at Blackwell’s island (Roosevelt Island). “Nearly all night long I listened to a woman cry about the cold and beg for God to let her die. Another one yelled, ’Murder!’ at frequent intervals and ‘Police!’ at others until my flesh felt creepy,” Bly wrote about her first night at the asylum. Her little experiment resulting from inquisitiveness, lead to a revolutionary change in the field of journalism. The accounts that were found out and further published, shocked the world to its core. The depiction of brutality and terror was not what the common people were expecting out of an asylum. For 10 days, Nellie lived with women who were suicidal, violent and psychotic, as well as with women who were mistakenly confined in the asylum.

These experiences were published in a book form – “Ten days in a mad-house”. The second high point in Bly’s career was when she sailed from New York to beat the record that was set up in the fictional work of ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’. Amazingly enough, she was able to beat the record with a considerable margin. Her time was 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes 14 seconds. This stunt made her more famous than she or anyone else had ever imagined. Nellie Bly’s book: Around the World in Seventy-Two days was a big hit and people from all over the world started acknowledging her passion and her devotion towards her profession. Nellie is still regarded as a godly figure in the world of journalism and is an idol for many little girls, aiming to fulfill their dreams through journalism. She died of pneumonia at the age of 57, but her contribution to journalism and guts towards life are immortal.

-Vani Dhaka