Nellie Bly Biography

1455 Words3 Pages

Reana Baltic
Dr. Brian Thornton
MMC 4500
3 October 2014

The Life of Investigative Report Nellie Bly

Throughout history, individuals such as Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Pulitzer and Robert Novak have all made their prominent mark on the history of journalism. Journalist Nellie Bly, however, pioneered a new type of investigative journalism that would impact future reporters internationally and that emphasized the benefits of using journalistic power to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
Born Elizabeth Cochran on May 5, 1964, Nellie Bly was raised in Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania (“Nellie Bly Biography”). At age six, Bly's father, Judge Cochran, passed away and left Bly and her mother to struggle financially on their own (Kroeger …show more content…

The journalist returned to the States and took a train to Philadelphia where 5,000 people awaited her arrival on January 25, 1890 (Kroeger 432). Nellie Bly completed her goal and made it around the world in seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds (“Nellie Bly Biography”). Following her trip, the New York World wrote a story titled ‘Father Time Outdone!’ and Bly became “the best-known reporter in America” (Goodman 341). Bly followed her journey by continuing to compose investigative articles for the World and wrote about a drought that hit the States, murderesses in jail and the Pullman Palace Car Company strike in Chicago (Emerson …show more content…

Seaman died in 1904, resulting in Bly’s take over of the company where she became “the world’s leading female industrialist” (Goodman 371). The company later resulted in bankruptcy after Major Edward Gilman, controller of the company’s finances, died in 1911 (Goodman 374). With the demolition of the company and after seventeen years working out of journalism, Bly began to work for the New York Evening Journal at age 48 (Goodman 374). In seek of a new occupation, Bly traveled to Austria in 1914 where a week later, World War I erupted (Goodman 376). Bly automatically contacted the New York Evening Journal and sent in stories from the war front. As the conflict continued, Bly participated in the relief effort by the Red Cross Hospital in Budapest and wrote a story about a Russian solider on the edge of death seeking his children (Goodman 376). In 1919 Bly traveled back to the states and regularly wrote for the Journal once again (Goodman

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