Wanted Dead or Alive

Before The News Sorority, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Christine Amanpour, a biography by Sheila Weller about women reporters, there was the bold, inquisitive reporter Nelly Bly who reported about politics, economics and injustices of the world, often about women. Born Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman in 1864 in Pennsylvania she was one of 14 children. Her once-wealthy father died without a will, leaving his family with very little. Elizabeth was determined to make her own way in the world. Her first reporting job was with a Pennsylvania paper reporting on women´s issues. It paid little and the paper refused to allow her to report on serious subjects, even when they affected women.

She moved to New York, named herself Nelly Bly after a popular song. Bly talked her way into an interview with the newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer who challenged her to write an article about New York´s notorious Blackwell Island Mental Asylum for women. Under cover as a mental patient Bly wrote an exposé that changed the care of mental health institutions throughout the world. During her journalistic career she researched and had published numerous articles advocating for women´s and workers’ rights, politics, social issues, and economics. She reported on current events both locally and internationally. She was not only a brave and thorough journalist, she enjoyed challenges as well as adventure. In November 1889 Nelly Bly left on a one-year assignment to Mexico to file newspaper reports for Joseph Pulitzer´s newspaper the New York World; however, she had to cut her reporting journey short because her articles on the unfair imprisonment and censorship of Mexican journalists caused then President Porfirio Diaz to place the American journalist on Mexico´s Most Wanted list. She had travelled throughout Mexico by train at the time Mexico had a world class train system. She fled Mexico in disguise via ship from Veracruz to New Orleans. In an article she wrote, “The Mexican papers never publish one word against the government or officials, and the people who are at their mercy dare not breathe one word against them… editors are thrown into prisons, too filthy for brute [sic], until they die… .” Later Bly published a book, Six Months in Mexico which is a compilation of her 37 articles about her time in Mexico. For her articles she interviewed politicians, journalists, professors, writers, working women and ordinary people she met during her journey through Mexico. Bly revealed that most Mexicans realize the futility of their existence, are quite religious, addicted to the National Lottery, love their families and abhor the Diaz dictatorship, which is why she was placed on Mexico´s Wanted Dead or Alive list while posters for her capture were distributed throughout Mexico.

She was a prolific writer, publishing three non-fiction books, numerous articles and twelve novels. After reading Jules Verne´s fictional novel Around the World in 80 Days, Bly convinced her editor, Joseph Pulitzer, to allow her to attempt circumnavigating the world in less time. With only one bag, a special wash and wear dress, an all-purpose cape and gumption, Bly set off to beat Phileas Fogg´s 1872 fictional journey, which she did in 72 days. She documented her travels by filing regular reports with her paper The New York World. Before returning to New York, she went to France because Jules Verne was anxious to meet the lady who actually travelled alone around the world in less time than his fictional character. Verne, who was aging and had given up his daily cordial was so charmed by Nelly Bly that he broke his abstinence and had a glass of sherry with the “enchanting Mademoiselle Bly.”

At the age of 31 she married a 73-year-old wealthy industrialist, Robert Seaman, owner of Iron Clad, a manufacturer of steel drums. It was a brief and stormy marriage, lasting only six years, before Seaman´s death. He was a jealous, insecure and possessive man, while Bly was an intelligent, independent woman. When she realized he had hired a private investigator to follow her, she went out to dine alone each night because she did not like her husband´s cook. She sued her husband and won. During her tenure at Iron Clad, Bly was granted several patents for steel oil drums, a milk can and stackable metal garbage cans. After her husband´s death Bly was outmaneuvered and lost her business to her husband´s partners. Some scandalous papers reported Bly was engaged in an affair with one of the partners. Although her biography acknowledges only one husband, Bly may have enjoyed the intimate company of several other men. Oscar Bondy, whom she met while covering WWI as a war correspondent, gave Bly shares in US companies, currency and a “magnificent diamond broach [sic] and earrings” that had belonged to the British Monarch, Queen Victoria. Later, when Nelly Bly knew she was dying, she returned Bondy´s gifts. Bondy´s own biography made interesting reading. He was a wealthy Austrian Jew who owned sugar factories, collected art, antique tapestries, Greek and Roman statues as well as Chinese porcelain, much of which he loaned to various museums. Most of his collections were confiscated by the Nazis. He died in exile in New York City before the end of WWII.

During WWI Bly was a war correspondent for the Pulitzer paper. Her articles, like those of today´s Christine Amanpour, told the stories of not just the brutality of war, but also how war affects women, children and civilization. Her firsthand accounts detailed the dangers soldiers, citizens and correspondents faced. She made the world aware that women and children were often the innocent victims. “Through narrow, muddy, cobbled streets we crowded, weaving in and out endless lines of wagons coming towards us bearing wounded soldiers… knapsacks told the mute story… .” Bly wrote two letters to US President Wilson concerning “creeping Bolshevism.” In her letters she requested a meeting with the president. He refused.

Her personal philosophy was, “I always have a comfortable feeling that nothing is impossible if one applies a certain amount of energy in the right direction.” During her journalistic career she is credited with over 600 news articles, 12 novels and four non-fiction books. Bly was the only female reporter at the funeral of her mentor, Joseph Pulitzer, the man who trusted her integrity and reporting skills. Bly´s own death is somewhat of a mystery; she either died of tuberculosis or pneumonia in either New York or in England. Before being diagnosed with tuberculosis Bly had been living in England to avoid legal action in New York. Although she died January 27, 1922, the place of death is ambiguous. Some sources list Saint Mark´s Hospital, New York. Others list Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, United Kingdom. However, for 55 years no gravestone marked her grave until June 22, 1978, when the New York Press Club dedicated a stone in honor of Nelly Bly.