It is December, 1921 and the college periodical of Columbia University wants to publish a special issue celebrating American journalism in honor of the tenth anniversary of Columbia's Journalism school. Miriam, a fictional student at Columbia University's School of Journalism, wants to write about Nellie Bly's investigation of the insane asylum almost thirty years ago. Despite the passage of time, women journalists are still assigned frivolous topics and there are limited employment opportunities. Miriam hopes that by learning about Bly's experiences, she can highlight just how little has changed for women.
Miriam reaches out to Bly but is repeatedly turned away until finally Miss Bly gives in and agrees to see her. Miriam tells Bly that she wants to write an article about her to start a public debate about the issue of so few women admissions to Columbia's journalism school. But Bly remembers how in 1885, she wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, protesting an article denigrating those women who wanted to work. Bly signed her letter anonymously but came forward when Mr. Madden published an add asking the writer to come forward. Madden offered Bly whose name then was Elizabeth Cochrane, the opportunity to write an article about the status of women. She was paid and she got to know Wilson, the author of the offending article better.
Miriam asks Bly how she came to have these modern ideas back then. Bly tells Miriam her real name and that she was born in 1864 during her mother's second marriage. Her family lived in Pennsylvania and were well off, until her father's death. Her mother remarried a man who was violent and an alcoholic.Her mother left the abusive marriage and asked for a divorce. Seeing what her mother went through, Elizabeth decided she wanted to make sure she was economically independent.
When Bly refuses to tell Miriam about her investigation of the insane asylum because she believes she is "playing" at journalism, Miriam tells her she is "blinded by her own prejudice." Miriam informs Bly that she comes from a poor family and has had to work in a doctor's office. She reminds Bly that her mentor, Joseph Pulitzer founded Columbia's journalism school.
However, Bly relents and invites Miriam back the next evening to talk.But before talking about the asylum, Bly tells Miriam how she wanted to investigate the working conditions of female factory workers. There were stories about poor working conditions and low wages. Wilson convinced the paper's editor, Madden and suggested Bly disguise herself as a factory worker. Bly's reports caused a stir and threats from angry industrialists to withdraw their advertisements from the Pittsburgh Dispatch.
Bly continues, telling Miriam about her failed attempt to work in Mexico as a foreign correspondent, her decision to eventually leave for New York. In New York, Chief Editor Mr. Cockerill believed Bly to be an amateur and proposed that she prove herself by investigating Blackwell's Island, New York City's female mental institution. Posing as a mentally ill woman, Bly spent ten traumatic days in the institution but her report was ground changing.
Bly also tells Miriam about her investigation of women workers in factories, something she began while in Pittsburgh and her interview with Belva Ann Lockwood, who ran in the 1888 U.S Presidential election! She finally relates the events that led to her undertaking a journey around the world for which she became famous.
Miriam comes to learn that some of Nellie's greatest accomplishments were ones that didn't garner much publicity. While she continued to cover the Pullman's Factory strikes and interview people like Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman and feminist Susan B. Anthony, she also reported from the front lines of World War I and quietly helped abandoned children and women in need.
Discussion
The Incredible Nellie Bly is an engaging account of the early life of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman whose pen name was Nellie Bly. A solid Introduction written by British journalist and author David Randall provides the basics of Nellie's life and is the perfect lead-in to this well done graphic novel. The authors use a story within a story to portray Nellie Bly's remarkable life. Fictitious journalism student Miriam decides to interview Nellie in 1921 in order to highlight the barriers women still are encountering in gaining admission to Columbia's school of journalism. Through these interviews, Nellie tells her story to an admiring Miriam.
Nellie's early family story is a bit unclear from the graphic arts panels: Her father, Michael Cochrane had ten children with his first wife, Catherine, remarried and had five more children with his second wife Mary, including Elizabeth Cochrane. It was Elizabeth's stepfather, her mother Mary's second husband who was an alcoholic and abusive. However, for the most part the details of Nellie's story are well portrayed in the graphic artwork and the accompanying text.
Cimino and Algozzino incorporate not only the important events of Nellie's professional career but also their significant impact on social conditions of the late 1800s. For example, her investigative report on Blackwell's Island resulted in more funding to mental institutions and major reforms of other public institutions, while her investigation of women workers in factories helped increase the number of women editorial staff at The World.
Nellie also encourages Miriam to be persistent in spite of how she's treated by her editors and by Karl, when she takes her to see Belva Ann Lockwood's grave. She also encourages Miriam to consider having both a career and marriage after Karl proposes but tells Miriam her work as a journalist is a "hobby".
Graphic artist Sergio Algozzino writes in his About The Artist at the back of the novel, that he was looking for a different technique to tell Nellie Bly's story. He "wanted a full, important line..." and after struggling to find the right tool, ended up creating the superb panels digitally.
The Incredible Nellie Bly captures her courage, determination and willingness to break social conventions in order to gain the right for women to be treated with respect and equality. This is still a timely lesson for today's young women and is done beautiful in this excellent graphic novel.
Book Details:
The Incredible Nellie Bly by Luciana Cimino and Sergio Algozzino
New York: Abrams Comic Arts 2019
144 pp.
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