NB: This edition of Kickass Women in History is paired with a review of Eighty Days, a nonfiction account of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s competing journeys around the world. While many people have heard of Nellie Bly, Bisland’s story is somewhat less known.
In 1889, newspaper reporter Nellie Bly set off to travel around the world in eighty days. Her paper, The World, kept interest high while she was gone, and when she came back, she was incredibly famous. Meanwhile, somewhat more quietly, another newspaper reporter was going around the world in the other direction. Elizabeth Bisland was a reluctant kickass woman, but she kicked ass just the same.
Elizabeth Bisland was born into a wealthy Southern family whose fortunes fell significantly after the Civil War. The family ended up moving to Louisiana, where Bisland began writing, first under a pseudonym, then later under her own name. She moved to New Orleans to work for the local paper, and then to New York where she wrote for multiple papers including Cosmopolitan (which, much later, turned into the magazine). Unlike Nellie Bly, Bisland was not an investigative reporter. She wrote poetry, essays, and literary fiction. Eventually, she became the Literary Fiction Editor at Cosmopolitan. Moving to New York to have a career was pretty kickass, and that was about as kickass as Bisland aimed to be.
However, once the owner of Cosmopolitan found out what Nellie Bly was up to, he became 
determined to compete with The World. At an 11AM meeting, Bisland was ordered to travel around the world. By 6PM that night, she was on a boat. Both Bly and Bisland set off on November 14, 1889. Bly didn’t know that there was a race until she got to Hong Kong.
Bisland wasn’t keen on making the trip, but she was a good sport about it. She enjoyed any opportunity to sightsee and wrote vividly about each location she was able to stop at. She only lost her temper once, when an Italian official demanded she unpack and the repack her trunk with only minutes left to catch her train:
I hope I did not forget the dignity a gentlewoman should preserve under the most trying circumstance, but I fancy that my tones, while low, were concentrated.
She threw all her belongings back into her trunk, shut it by jumping up and down on it, and caught her train. She completed her trip in seventy-six days and a half days. Sadly for Bisland, this was too late for victory. Bly finished in seventy-two days and six minutes.
After the race, Bisland visited friends in London, where she socialized with the elite and continued to write for Cosmopolitan. She married Charles Whitmore, returned to New York, and wrote several books. She was heartbroken by Whitmore’s death after a long illness. She found solace in charity work, gardening, and writing. Bisland died at the age of sixty-seven of a sudden attack of pneumonia.
Bisland had a lengthy obituary in The New York Times, but it did not mention her race around the world.
For more information about Bisland, or to read about her and Bly’s journeys around the world, check out Carrie’s review of Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman.
Sources: Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman
If you think about it, although it’s impressive that Bly was so adventurous, it’s impressive in a different way that Bisland completed the trip although not naturally inclined to do something so strenuous.
Ok, love this as always but am curious why the postscript on Bisland but not Bly?
*off to Google*
She may have lost the race, but it looks like Bisland enjoyed the journey more, and appreciated the sites she visited, more than Bly. I bet her prose was more lyrical and evocative as well, considering her background as a fiction writer rather than an investigative reporter; her POV would have been quite different. Does Goodman’s book provide samples of both for comparison? I’d be very interested to see how their accounts compare.
I focused on Bisland because Bly is already well-known, and I like to focus on women who are largely forgotten.
I get that, I do. And after googling her I agree with @EC Spurlock regarding Ms Bisland. It was just that for me, personally, Nellie Bly’s name was familiar to me but I’d forgotten what she’d done, hence the asking and googling.
I love this feature and always look forward to reading about your latest ‘kick-ass woman’. Given the times Elizabeth Bisland was indeed a kick-ass woman. I have to think of her as being an empowering woman and one who put down the groundwork for women getting the vote in 1920 and for the feminist movement of the 70s and 80s
Dennis
Both women wrote books about their trip, and both of those books are still in print (and e-book). Bisland’s is called “A Flying Trip Around the World,” and Bly’s (spoiler alert) is called “Around the World in 72 Days.” I’ve read them both, and EC Spurlock is correct; Bisland’s prose is far more evocative.