NELLIE VS. ELIZABETH

The real-life story of two intrepid female journalists and their competition to circumnavigate the globe.

In 1889, daredevil American newswoman Nellie Bly was keen to improve on the journey described in Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). Though skeptical at first—“women are too delicate for adventures”—her editors eventually gave her the go-ahead. Little did she know that rival reporter Elizabeth Bisland was attempting the same record-breaking trip from the opposite coast of the USA. Hannigan recounts the hair-raising, breakneck race, including the challenges each woman faced—seasickness, late ships, surly sailors, and more. Direct quotes attributed to Bly, Bisland, and various newspapers that covered the escapade pepper the text, some raising more questions than they answer. Did Elizabeth really receive false information that her ship had refused to wait for her? On this point the book is mum. Although the narrative attempts to laud both women equally, the description of Bly as a “stunt journalist” who was “willing to go to outrageous extremes to catch a reader’s attention” minimizes her important work. The acrylic ink and colored pencil illustrations are colorful with fine details, if flat; they sometimes strain the reader’s credulity, as in a spread showing the two women joining hands and celebrating their wins together. Backmatter includes a marvelous “Timeline of Women Investigative Journalists” that is worthy of an entire book in and of itself.

This mutual homage mutes the thrill of competition, yet there's much to love in this historic tale of female derring-do.