Investigative journo blazed a trail for women

Louisa Treger, the author of Mad Woman, was in conversation with publisher Karina Szcurek at Exclusive Cavendish on Thursday August 11.

Based on a true story, this historical novel explores the life of Elizabeth Jane Cochran, who was born in 1864 in Pennsylvania and died in 1922, aged 57.

Under the pen name, Nellie Bly, she wrangled her way onto a newspaper, writing stories about fashion, food, gardening and society at a time when an alternative career would have been teaching.

Bored with what she was allowed to write, Bly talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper and took an undercover assignment faking madness and staying in a notorious asylum on Roosevelt Island off New York, to investigate conditions there.

Her reports sparked outrage and legal action and led to improvements in the treatment of the mentally ill. Her work also blazed a trail for women in newspapers.

Bly is also known for going around the world in record time, inspired by Jules Verne’s fictional character Phileas Fogg who undertook the trip in 80 days. Using rickshaws, steam ships and trains, Bly’s trip around the world in 72 days brought her even further fame. She was also the first female war correspondent, filing stories from the front.

At the launch, Treger said, “Although it's a historical book nothing has changed. Even now female journalists get paid less than men.”