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Nellie Bly

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and for an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within.[1] She pioneered her field and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.[2] Early life[edit] Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born May 5, 1864,[3] in Cochran's Mills, now part of Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.[4][5][6] Her father, Michael Cochran, born about 1810, started as a laborer and mill worker before buying the local mill and most of the land surrounding his family farmhouse. He later became a merchant, postmaster, and associate justice at Cochran's Mills (named after him) in Pennsylvania.

[15][ failed verification]"Mad Marriages" was published under the byline of Nellie Bly, rather than "Lonely Orphan Girl" because, at the time,[14] it was customary for female journalists to use pen names to conceal their gender so that readers would not discredit them. During her travels around the world, Bly went through England, France (where she met Jules Verne in Amiens), Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo(in Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. After the fanfare of her trip around the world, Bly quit reporting and took a lucrative job writing serial novels for publisher Norman Munro's weekly New York Family Story Paper.

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