In Seven Stages

In Seven Stages: A Flying Trap Around the World (1891) is a travel narrative by American journalist Elizabeth Bisland. When Bly's journey--inspired by the travels of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)--was announced in Joseph Pulitzer's popular newspaper the New York World, Cosmopolitan sent a young reporter of its own to race Bly across the globe. At the time, readers at home were encouraged to estimate the hour and day of Bisland's arrival, generating national interest and launching a series of copycat adventures by ambitious voyagers over the next few decades. "My appetite for mystery at that hour of the day is always lamentably feeble, and it was nearly eleven before I found time to go and investigate this one, although the office in question was only a few minutes' walk from my residence. On arriving, the editor and owner of the magazine asked if I would leave New York that evening for San Francisco and continue from there around the world, endeavoring to complete the journey in some absurdly inadequate space of time." Summoned from her life of work and leisure to undertake a several month journey around the world, Elizabeth Bisland rose to the occasion with courage and wit. Although Nellie Bly made it home five days before her--perhaps due to some subterfuge on the part of her publisher--Bisland took defeat in stride, writing an account filled with wonderful descriptions of her voyage. Ironic and self-effacing, Bisland's account, although less popular than Bly's, remains an essential work from the early days of tabloid entertainment and investigative journalism, a time when publishers were willing enough--or wild enough--to send correspondents on a globetrotting voyage in search of fame.

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