Elizabeth Bisland, Beyond the Trip Around the World

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode: Elizabeth Bisland, Beyond the Trip Around the World
Hosts: Tracy B. Wilson & Holly Frey
Date: March 9, 2026
Podcast by: iHeartPodcasts

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Main Theme

This episode explores the life and career of journalist and writer Elizabeth Bisland—best known for her around-the-world race against Nellie Bly in 1889–90—but goes further, delving into Bisland’s intriguing upbringing, her literary accomplishments, relationships, and nuanced legacy. The hosts seek to paint a fuller picture of Bisland, whose achievements have often been overshadowed or defined solely by her famous journey.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Life and Family Background

• Birth and Context

  • Born in 1861 in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, to Thomas Shields Bisland and Margaret Bisland (04:25).
  • Family’s wealth was based on slavery, owning about 120 enslaved people.

• Civil War Impact on the Family

  • Plantation was heavily impacted by the war: loss of forced labor, physical destruction, and financial setbacks (07:41).
  • Post-war, family’s social and financial position diminished significantly.

• Childhood and Education

  • Bisland was precocious and literate, teaching herself French while churning butter so she could read Rousseau in the original language (09:48).
  • Secretly submitted poems under the pseudonym “BLR Dayne” to the New Orleans Times Democrat; even her own mother, also a poet, was unaware for a time (10:28).

Launch of Literary and Journalism Career

• Entry into Journalism

  • At 20, offered a staff job at the Times Democrat (10:28).
  • "Almost before I was grown, I was thrust out of leisure into the life of journalism..." (Elizabeth Bisland, 11:26).

• New York Move & Literary Editorship

  • Moved to New York with $50, finding early support from Chester Lord at the New York Sun (17:11).
  • Became literary editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, regularly reviewed books, and wrote under minimal or no byline (19:57).

• Relationships Influencing Her Career

  • Lifelong, possibly obsessive correspondence with Greek-American writer Lafcadio Hearn, whom she met in New Orleans (12:39).

The Race Around the World

• Setting the Stage

  • Nellie Bly’s announced journey to beat the "Around the World in 80 Days" record inspired Cosmopolitan publisher John Brisbin Walker to send Bisland on a competing trip in the opposite direction (21:07).
  • Both women’s journeys leveraged late 19th-century fascination with speed, travel, and progress (25:03).

• Bisland's Reluctance & Experience

  • "I had become convinced that the editor really wished me to make the attempt. And I had earnestly endeavored to convince him that I meant to do nothing of the sort. To begin with, I didn't wish to... and lastly, but most weightily, I foresaw the notoriety... to this notoriety I most earnestly objected." (Bisland, 23:42)
  • Despite reluctance, departed six hours after assignment given.

• Differences in Reporting Styles

  • Bly’s account: Sensational, focused on public adulation ("It was glorious, a ride worthy of a queen." - Bly, 28:00).
  • Bisland’s account: Reserved, poetic, introspective ("The water has smoothed itself into a bay, and a huge gray woman holding an uplifted torch awaits our coming..." - Bisland, 29:07).

• The Outcome & Public Reception

  • Bisland was on track to beat Bly, but a misinformation incident in France caused her to miss a key connection, extending her journey to 76 days versus Bly's 72 (30:41).
  • Bisland avoided the lecture circuit and publicity, while Bly embraced fame.

Life After the Famous Journey

• Continued Writing and Collaborations

  • Lived in the UK for a year post-trip, collaborated with Rhoda Broughton, corresponded with Rudyard Kipling (36:49).
  • Married Charles Whitman Wetmore, becoming financially secure (37:19).

• The ‘Art of Travel’ and Views on Independent Women Travelers

  • Authored travel advice for women—practical but infused with period views on gender and cultural norms (38:34).
  • "There was nothing to prevent a woman from seeing every civilized and even semi-civilized country in the world without other protection than her own modesty and good sense." (Bisland, 40:04).
  • As hosts note, some advice is progressive, but also problematic in blaming women for negative experiences and relying on ideals of male chivalry (41:21).

• Later Work: The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn

  • Authored a major two-volume biography, supporting Hearn’s widow with proceeds; biography sidesteps Hearn’s earlier controversial marriage due to contemporary race laws (42:02).
  • Continued to publish essays on social organization and gender—her 1927 “The Truth About Men and Other Matters” critically examines historical gendered self-narratives (45:02).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On her childhood imagination:
  • "As soon as articulate speech was at my command, it was my practice to catch and mount barebacked any small wild hobby which might happen to graze in the vicinity..." (Bisland, 09:05).
• On entering journalism:
  • “Almost before I was grown, I was thrust out of leisure into the life of journalism..." (11:26).
• On Women's Travel:
  • "There was, quote, nothing to prevent a woman from seeing every civilized and even semi civilized country in the world without other protection than her own modesty and good sense." (Bisland, 40:04).
• On gendered narratives:
  • “Whatever has been recorded of the human male... has been written, said and sung by himself. Whatever has been told of woman... has also been set down by the same hand." (45:02)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:34 | Introduction and setting the episode’s theme | | 04:25 | Bisland's early life, family, and Civil War context | | 09:05 | Early literary ambitions and self-description | | 10:28 | Secret poetry submissions and start at New Orleans Times Democrat | | 17:11 | Move to NYC and breaking into literary journalism | | 21:07 | Nellie Bly's announced journey and Cosmopolitan's response | | 23:42 | Bisland's reaction to the sudden assignment | | 25:03 | Media coverage and gendered aspect of stunt journalism | | 27:36 | Contrasts in Bly and Bisland’s reports | | 30:41 | How travel mishap led to Bisland’s loss in the race | | 36:09 | Bisland distancing herself from the "lady stunt reporter" trend | | 38:34 | Marriage and post-trip career | | 42:02 | Major writing project: Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn | | 45:02 | “The Truth About Men and Other Matters” and critique of gendered history | | 47:06 | Bisland’s death, obituary, and charitable legacy | | 47:46 | Posthumous publications; lasting impact |

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Complexities and Legacy

• Complex perspectives:

  • Bisland's writings show both progressive and dated views, especially regarding gender, race, and class.
  • Some works contain language and arguments now recognized as harmful or offensive, notably antisemitic tropes present in her later essays (46:23).

• Relationship with Fame:

  • "Bisland had known that a trip around the world made by a woman reporter would bring her fame and notoriety, which she absolutely did not want." (36:09)
  • Unlike Bly, Bisland sought to define herself through literary merit rather than sensational exploits.

• Lasting Contributions:

  • Set up a charitable fund for those with tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases (47:29).
  • Posthumous book, Three Wise Men of the East, displays sensitivity to Eastern histories, republished in 2018 (47:46).

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Memorable Anecdotes

• The mistaken identity saga surrounding Bisland’s pseudonymous poetry, where even her mother was confused by the “older English gentleman” writing style, adds a humorous touch (10:28).
• The vivid recounting by Lefcadio Hearn: “She is a sort of goddess here, keeps a Southern salon… as for me, she is like hashish.” (20:30)

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Final Thoughts

This episode adeptly illuminates the complexities and contradictions in Elizabeth Bisland’s life and career. While she will forever be linked to her sensational race against Nellie Bly, Bisland’s story is ultimately deeper—a tale of literary accomplishment, societal contradiction, and the quest for identity outside the bounds of fame.

For listeners interested in women’s history, journalism, and the interplay of progress and prejudice in late 19th to early 20th-century America, this episode offers a richly contextual and honest portrait.

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Transcript

[Tracy B. Wilson]

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[Holly]

Welcome to stuff you missed in history class, a production of iHeartradio.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson.

[Holly]

And I'm Hol.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Today's episode is on journalist and writer Elizabeth Bisland, and I moved her up to the top of my short list because of her trip around the world, which started in 1889. Somehow I got it into my head that this trip involved a hot air balloon. And I don't know about everybody else, but there have been some moments lately when the idea of getting into a balloon and just floating away and having a break from everything going on that has sounded very appealing. There were no hot air balloons on this trip. It was called a flying trip for its speed, not for its altitude. There was also no balloon travel in the partial inspiration from this trip, which was Jules Verne's 1872 novel around the World in Eighty Days. Hot air balloons didn't start showing up in around the world in 80 days until movie adaptations of it. The book no Balloon Travel. I say partially because it was Nellie Bly who started an attempt to beat the fictional record set in that book when Elizabeth Bisland started a trip in the opposite direction. A lot of the more recent writing about Elizabeth Bisland frames this entire story, her story of her life, in relation to Bly's, like all the way through, or it's focused mostly on the trip, and it juxtaposes these two women. But Elizabeth Bisland had a whole career outside of this trip around the world, and it was one that was mostly totally disconnected from the kind of stunt journalism that this trip was part of.

[Holly]

Elizabeth Bisland was born in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, on February 11, 1861. That is in southern Louisiana. It's about 100 miles west of New Orleans. Her parents were Thomas Shields Bisland and Margaret Cyrilla Brownsen Bisland. Thomas had trained as a doctor, but when Elizabeth was born, he wasn't practicing medicine. He came from a wealthy slaveholding family that owned property across the region, and he had purchased Fairfax plant in 1858. It was struggling in the wake of a hurricane and the panic of 1857, so Thomas was pretty focused on turning it around. By the time Elizabeth was born there, its output had surged. Bisland enslaved about 120 people, so the Bisland family's wealth came from that forced labor.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

For more than a year after the start of the Civil War, the enslaved workers at Fairfax Plantation kept up a really robust output of sugar. And that was in spite of Increasing disruptions to supply and shipping lines. But then in the spring of 1862, the United States army cut off the region's access to the Mississippi river, which was a really primary shipping route. The Confederate army started fortifying positions around nearby Bayou Tech and that included earthwork fortifications at a fort known as Fort Bisland. One of the major battles in this area was the Battle of Bisland, which took place on April 12 and 13, 1863.

[Holly]

By the time that happened, Elizabeth's mother had taken Elizabeth and an older sibling and fled to Natchez, Mississippi to stay with family. Elizabeth's father had joined the Confederate army where he served as a doctor. He was eventually captured at the Siege of Vicksburg and was paroled after the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. The Civil War ended in 1865. At that point, Elizabeth was 4.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

We don't have a lot of other detail about Elizabeth's life during these years. Her 1903 novel A Candle of Understanding clearly draws some inspiration from her early life and from her family's return to Louisiana after the war. But this is also a work of fiction and its main character's life goes in a different direction from her own. It's tricky to puzzle out how much of this book might be a retelling of her own experiences. It also incorporates a lot of the racist language of the period that it's depicting. And it's very obviously influenced by the Lost Cause mythology of the Civil War, which was simultaneously inaccurate and really popular when she wrote this book. Some of Bisland's other writing describes slavery as a centuries long injustice that was contrary to the nation's founding ideals of liberty and equality. But it is hard to get a sense of what her actual opinions were about all of this as an adult, at least based in the written material of hers that I was able to read.

[Holly]

We do know however, that the Bislands lives changed after the war ended. Bisland's enslaved workforce had been freed and the sugar fields at Fairfax Plantation had been torn up in the course of various military actions. For comparison, the plantation's Sugar production in 1869 was only about 35% of what it had been before the U.S. army advanced into the area in 1862. Thomas Bisland could no longer make his payments on the property and he had to turn it back over to Judge Joshua Baker, who he had purchased it from.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The terms of their retrocession agreement gave Baker the rights to any compensation that might be made for this damage, not Bisland. Although Baker was also a slaveholder he had remained loyal to the United States during the war, and he had strongly advocated against Louisiana's secession from the Union. Because of this, Baker was eligible for compensation for $300 for every enslaved person on the plantation who had been freed. He also served as governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. Thomas Bisland, on the other hand, wasn't eligible for anything, and he mostly became known for having previously been one of the South's most prominent landowners.

[Holly]

But the glimpses we get of Elizabeth's young life from her own writing, essays that are directly about herself, not novels, suggest that she grew up bright and engaged in spite of the family's changed circumstances. Here's how she described herself in the preface to her essay collection, at the Sign of the Hobby Horse. That collection was published in 1910. Quote, as soon as articulate speech was at my command, it was my practice to catch and mount barebacked any small wild hobby which might happen to graze in the vicinity, and with beating heart and flying hair to ride it round and round the narrow enclosure of my immature ideas.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In her essay collection, the Secret Life Being the Book of a Heretic, which came out in 1906, she writes about teaching herself French while churning the butter so that she could read the entirety of Russo's Confessions in its original language. And she did that because George Eliot had called this the most interesting book that she knew. It turned out that Elizabeth loathed Rousseau, but after suffering through all four volumes of the Confessions, she wound up with a passable knowledge of French. She also sold the butter to make a little money for the family, which included her parents and at least five siblings.

[Holly]

She also started writing poetry and submitting it to the New Orleans Times Democrat under the pseudonym BLR Dayne. She wanted to keep this a secret to the point that she walked for miles to mail her poems from a different post office than their local one, with the hopes that they wouldn't be connected to her. The style of her writing made the editor think that the poems must have been written by an older gentleman from England. Elizabeth's mother had also been submitting poetry to the newspaper, but she was not disguising her identity, and an editor eventually wrote to ask her to see if she knew who this man might be, since it seemed like he lived in a neighboring town. This is the best sitcom plot of all time. Eventually, everyone put two and two together, and in 1881, when she was 20 years old, Elizabeth Bisland was offered a job working for the Times Democrat.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Later on in her life, she described her transition into journalism this way. Quote, almost before I was grown, I was thrust out of leisure into the life of journalism. I did reporting and wrote verse, book reviews and stories of all sorts and descriptions. One piece of reporting that stands out in my memory is a supper given to Joaquin Miller in New Orleans, which I attended as reporter and where I was never once made to realize that I was the only woman present.

[Holly]

Joaquin Miller was only one of the poets and writers that Bisland met while she was living in New Orleans. Another was Greek writer and translator Lefkadio Hearn, who had immigrated to the United States in 1869. He had first arrived in New Orleans as a political correspondent for the Cincinnati Commercial in 1876, covering the presidential election. He eventually started working at the Times Democrat, which is where he met Bisland. Hearn might be the subject of a future episode. He's pretty interesting. That might be a good October episode because he had a strong interest in ghost stories and the occult.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, that's also some of his published work. Hearn and Bisland had a lifelong relationship, one that was intense and maybe even obsessive on his part, and it seemed to be even more so when they were not in the same place. He clearly saw her as something of a museum. Her feelings are not quite as clear. Her side of their correspondence has not survived, and when she edited and published letters of his after his death, she did not really comment on their contents about her.

[Holly]

Elizabeth's work as a journalist is what led her to taking her trip around the world, and we're going to get into that after a sponsor break. Unlike the people we normally talk about on the show, we are living in a time when Internet connectivity is a standard part of life for most people. And there is literally no way we could research and prepare our podcast without the Internet. If connectivity goes down for me, it can be really hard to make up that lost time. And for businesses, Internet connectivity is even more of a necessity. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast and reliable Internet, advanced Wi, Fi, phone, TV and mobile services. Spectrum business offers 100% US based customer support and they do it 24. 7. That means you can always stay up and running no matter what hours your business keeps. Spectrum Business also will tailor connectivity solutions just for you. They will put a package together that is built for your business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. So visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas.

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

To quote from an interview Elizabeth Bisland gave later on quote after some years in New Orleans, I decided to come to New York. I arrived with $50 in my pocket and was advised by Mr. Chester Lord, who was everything that was courteous, considerate and charming to go home. Finding that I was bent upon staying, he helped me to get work and accepted himself. The first thing that I had published here so Chester Lord was managing editor at the New York sun and that first thing that he published was a brief sketch of a fun Bisland went on to say, quote, new York proved a great opportunity. My work was accepted by puck, though Mr. Bunner, under the impression that I was a man, did return my first article on the score that it was too masculine. The Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, and other leading magazines.

[Holly]

That quote was from a two part article by Julia R. Tutwiler in the Bookman called Southern Women in New York that was published in 1904. So it was roughly 20 years after Bisland moved there. This piece was about the numerous women who moved from the south to New York in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to try to make their livings as writers or journalists. The article profiled several of them, including Bisland, and walked through what the trajectory was like for most Southern women who arrived in the city without an established relationship with a newspaper or publisher. There, they would submit articles and stories to an assortment of newspapers and magazines to try to build a more ongoing stream of work based on their early acceptances. But a lot of women found that those early successes did not turn into a steady writing job. So Tutwiler also wrote about related jobs that these women might also be fit for, like readers for magazines and publishing houses, editors and literary advisors.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

By the time Tutwiler wrote this piece, which again was like 20 years after Bisland had come to New York, Bisland had become a success, but her early experience after arriving in New York around 1887 paralleled Tutwiler's description of what a hopeful writer or journalist to be should expect. She submitted pieces to a range of periodicals and some of them were accepted and published, but it was harder to turn that into A steady job. When she did get a steady job, it was not as a writer or a reporter. It was as literary editor at the Cosmopolitan, an illustrated monthly magazine. Her work as a literary editor did

[Holly]

allow her to write. She was responsible for a monthly review of recently published books titled in the Library, and it ran under an illustration of a reader sitting in front of a fireplace in a home library, book in hand, in with a quote from Edmund Spencer's the Fairy Queen on the mantle in 1889. Some of her other pieces in the Cosmopolitan were the studios of New York Cooperative Housekeeping in tenements and the New York flower market. Much of her work was published without a byline.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Lefcadio Hearn came to visit her in New York in 1889, and he wrote a letter to physician and lexicographer George M. Gould saying, quote, she is a sort of goddess here, keeps a Southern salon. It is hard to get to talk to her. She is a witch, turning heads everywhere. But some of her best admirers are afraid of her. One told me he felt as if he were playing with a beautiful, dangerous leopard, which he loved for not biting him. As for me, she is like hashish.

[Holly]

On November 14, 1889, the New York World announced that Nellie Bly would be trying to travel around the world faster than the fictional character of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's around The World in 80 Days. John Brisbin Walker, the owner of the Cosmopolitan and Bisland's boss, saw this headline and thought it could be an opportunity for his magazine.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

So the Cosmopolitan was only three years old, and when Walker bought it in 1889, it was struggling. It had a circulation of only about 16,000 copies a month. On the other hand, Joseph Pulitzer had bought the New York World in 1883, and it was on its way to becoming New York's most read daily newspaper. It was on its way to becoming the first to reach a circulation of 1 million. Pulitzer had turned to sensationalism and sometimes misleading reporting to try to get an audience to that was a style that would become known as yellow journalism. And that had worked.

[Holly]

Walker was trying to do something similar with the Cosmopolitan, although without offending the sensibilities of its more highbrow literary audience. An industry publication called the Journalist described Walker's changes at the magazine as, quote, timeliness and dignified sensationalism. The magazine circulation did seem to be growing, and Walker thought sending a conventionally pretty lady reporter of his own to try to beat Nellie Bly could bring in even more readers.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Here is How Elizabeth Bisland described learning that this was going to be her next assignment. Quote, the very first intimation I received of the coming thunderbolt out of the serene sky of my existence was a hurried and mysterious request at half past 10 o' clock that I would come as soon as possible to the office of the magazine of which I was one of the editors. My appetite for mystery at that hour of the day is always lamentably feeble, and it was nearly 11 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 day evening for San Francisco and continue from there around the world, endeavoring to complete the journey in some absurdly inadequate space of time.

[Holly]

She went on to say, quote, if my appetite for mystery that hour is not strong, my appetite at 11 in the morning for even the most excruciatingly funny jokes may be said to actually not exist. And this one, I remember, bored me more than most. But in the course of half an hour, I had become convinced that the editor really wished me to make the attempt. And I had earnestly endeavored to convince him that I meant to do nothing of the sort. To begin with, I didn't wish to. In the second place, guests were coming to my house to tea on the following day. Thirdly, I was not prepared in the matter of appropriate garments for such an abrupt departure. And lastly, but most weightily, I foresaw the notoriety that an effort to outdo the feat of Jules Verne's hero was likely to bring upon me. And to this notoriety, I most earnestly objected.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In spite of all of those feelings, Elizabeth Bisland boarded a train to San Francisco about six hours after her boss gave her this assignment, as Nellie Bly was sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. Bisland and Bly were not the only people to try to make this journey in the years just after Jules Fern's novel was published. But most of the other people who tried were men.

[Holly]

Both publications were trying to reclaim some of the heyday of 19th century travel writing. Because of the travel schedules and the limitations of communication systems in 1889, it wasn't possible for either woman to write and file stories during the journey. The world dealt with this with daily front page coverage giving Bly's likely location and itinerary, and maybe a map of where she probably was, and running contests like having readers guess exactly when she would arrive home. They also published an interview with Jules Verne and various songs and poems about Nellie Bly.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Cosmopolitan was a monthly magazine, so it could not do that kind of daily coverage. The timing of all this meant that it could not even announce Bisland's trip in its own pages until she had already gotten back from it. Instead, Walker tried to bet an editor from the World a thousand dollars that Bisland would finish her journey first. The editor turned that down. He also tried to get other newspapers to cover what Bisland was doing, which was mostly successful in San Francisco since she actually had a stop there. Newspapers were a lot more eager to cover Bly, but Bisland got some publicity from publications that framed it as a race between the two women, like Frank Leslie's Illustrated newspaper, which published an illustration of the two women in January of 1890 that framed them as rival tourists.

[Holly]

Bly and Bisland each wrote accounts of their voyages after returning home, publishing them in the World and the Cosmopolitan. Bly got started right away and the World published her story over four Sunday editions. Bly's whole story was out there within a month of her return and quickly published as a book. She also went on a lecture and publicity tour to talk about it.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Bisland, though, tried to distance herself from publicity afterward. She had said from the very beginning that she did not want this notoriety. She finished her journey on January 30, 1890, and the first installment of her account of it appeared in Cosmopolitan's April issue. From there she covered one stage of the journey every month until October. A book incorporating all of it was published as 7 A Flying Trip around the World a year after she returned.

[Holly]

Bly's and Bisland's accounts are so different from one another. This reflects each woman's sensibilities and those of the publications that they were writing for. Bly's are much more sensational, with a lot of reference to how many well wishers turned out to greet her and wish her well on her journey. Whereas Bisland's are more restrained and often quite poetic.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

So, for example, here is what Bly had to say about her crossing the United States from west to east on the last leg of her trip. Quote, I only remember my trip across the continent as one maze of happy greetings, happy wishes, congratulating telegrams, fruit, flowers, loud cheers, wild hurrahs, rapid handshaking, and a beautiful car filled with fragrant flowers attached to a swift engine that was tearing like mad through flower dotted valley and over snow tipped mountain. On, on, on. It was glorious, a ride worthy of a queen. She ends with, quote, the station was packed with Thousands of people, and the moment I landed on the platform, one yell went up from them, and the cannons at the battery in Fort Greene boomed out the news of my arrival. I took off my cap and wanted to yell with the crowd, and not because I had gone around the world in 72 days, but because I was home again.

[Holly]

Meanwhile, since Bisland made her trip in the opposite direction of Bly, her last stage was by sea, and she wrote of approaching New York City, quote, the water has smoothed itself into a bay, and a huge gray woman holding an uplifted torch awaits our coming. The emigrants regard her wonderingly, the symbol of liberty held aloft and a benignant countenance turned towards all the outer world. We are by the shores of Staten Island. A pretty English girl who has braved the winter storms to follow her new husband to a foreign country remarks surprisedly that all this looks much like England, evidently having expected log cabins in a country town. But I have no time to be amused at her ignorance. I am saying joyously to myself, is this the hill? Is this the kirk? Is this my name, Country? Suddenly a great flood of familiarity washes away the memory of the strange lands and people I have seen and blots out all sense of time that has elapsed since I saw all this. I know how everything, the streets, the houses, the passersby are looking at this moment. It is as if I had turned away my head for an instant and now looked back again. My duties, my cares, my interests, which had grown dim and shadowy in these last two months, suddenly take on sharp outlines and become alive and real once more. I feel as if I had but sailed down the bay for an hour and was now returning.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, that bit about. Is this the hill? Is this the kirk? That's from Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If people did not recognize it. As far as the race aspect of this trip went, Nellie Bly did not even know that another reporter had been sent to try to beat her until almost 40 days into her journey. When she passed through Hong Kong just a few days after Bisland did. Bly was trying to beat Phileas Fogg's time with a goal of 75 days, while Bisland was trying to beat Bly's time because that was her assignment. Bisland was on track to do that. But after changing train cars at 4 in the morning so that she could make a connection to a fast ship called the Transatlantic in France, an agent from Cook's tourist bureau in Paris told her that she had already missed her boat. This was not true. By some accounts the ship had been paid to wait for her, and by others the captain was interested in her pursuit and so he took it upon himself to try to hold the ship for her. Either way, though, when she thought she had missed it, she made other, slower arrangements. In Bisland's words quote the cause of this false information was never satisfactorily ascertained. It, however, succeeded in lengthening the voyage four days, so her round the world trip took 76 days while Bly's took 72.

[Holly]

We will get into Bisland's life after all of this after a sponsor break. Unlike the people we normally talk about on the show, we are living in a time when Internet connectivity is a standard part of life for most people and there is literally no way we could research and prepare our podcast without the Internet. If connectivity goes down for me, it can be really hard to make up that lost time. And for businesses, Internet connectivity is even more of a necessity. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast and reliable Internet, advanced Wi Fi, phone, TV and mobile services. Spectrum business offers 100% US based customer support and they do it 24,7. That means you can always stay up and running no matter what hours your business keeps. Spectrum Business also will tailor connectivity solutions just for you. They will put a package together that is built for your business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected, so visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas.

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

As we said earlier, Elizabeth Bisland had known that a trip around the world made by a woman reporter would bring her fame and notoriety, which she absolutely did not want. The idea of the lady stunt reporter became a whole genre of late 19th century journalism. And that was largely because of Nellie Bly's influence. But Bisland really tried to distance herself from that. It does seem like her writing about her trip brought new readers to the Cosmopolitan. At least its circulation did keep going up. It reached about 60,000 by 1892 and it just kept growing from there.

[Holly]

After returning to the US Bisland went to the UK and lived there for a year. While she wasn't doing the kind of lecture tours that Bly did, she had made enough of a name for herself to that she was able to connect with writers while she was there. One was Welsh author Rhoda Broughton. The two of them collaborated on a novel called A Widower Indeed, that was published in 1891. Bisland also met Rudyard Kipling and the two exchanged letters afterward.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

While Bisland was in the uk lawyer and industrialist Charles Whitman Whitmore traveled there to propose to her. They had met at a ball back in the United States. Their engagement was announced In August of 1891, at which point he was president of the North American Company, which was the primary owner of the Northern Pacific railroad, the Edison Company, and the Oregon Transcontinental Company.

[Holly]

They got married quietly on October 6, 1891. A piece on the wedding that ran in the society column of the Chattanooga Daily Times described Bisland as famous because of her race with Nellie bly, but quote, Ms. Bisland is entitled to fame on much higher grounds. She has won earned laurels in the literary field as the most graceful and graphic writer and as a shining star in society.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

This marriage made Elizabeth very comfortable financially. That 1904 profile of Southern women writers included a photo of the expansive drawing room at Applegarth, which is the estate that Wetmore built on Long Island. At Applegarth, she continued writing.

[Holly]

In 1894, her 30 page illustrated essay the Art of Travel was published in the Woman's Book, dealing practically with the modern conditions of home life, self support, education opportunities and everyday problems. She wrote in this piece that she intended this travel advice for women of moderate means, meaning women who had enough money to travel but not so much money that they didn't have to think about economy or could travel with a whole staff to deal with their day to day needs.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

I found her advice really fascinating considering what travel is like in today's era of cars and airplanes and, I don't know, roll aboard luggage. She writes that in her opinion and experience, a woman can travel comfortably with one trunk, one dressing bag and one shawl strap. She talks about the merits of the newly introduced bureau trunk which had drawers in the top lid. The dressing bag was for toiletries and small articles and she also recommend getting one that was big enough to hold a night dress, slippers and a dressing gown so that you could comfortably refresh yourself and have something to sleep in if your trunk was stowed somewhere. The shawl strap held what a traveler would need to deal with the weather, so an ulster coat an umbrella and overshoes all rolled together in a traveling rug or a carriage blanket, just basically something to stay warm under.

[Holly]

It was not common for women to travel alone, especially not women who weren't truly wealthy. But Bisland argued that in reality there was, quote, nothing to prevent a woman from seeing every civilized and even semi civilized country in the world without other protection than her own modesty and good sense. This sounds somewhat progressive until she gets to her reasoning, which is that most men are chivalrous and that in the event of a disaster, everyone will be focused on the safety of women and children. That's cute. She also says that when women have painful experiences traveling alone, it is their own fault. Nine times out of ten. And she recommends that solo women travelers ensure a good voyage through good manners, modesty, and quote, cool and nimble wit and recognition that the woman is not the center of the world and her own discomforts and needs do not take priority over all the other solo travelers.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, when I first read that, I was like, okay, the idea of civilized and semi civilized, that's a little problematic, but I see what you're getting at. And then I got to the part where she was basically like, if you have a bad trip and you're a woman, it's your own fault. And I was like, oh, that's because

[Holly]

men are totally cool.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Men will be great, and as long as you're great to them, then you'll have a good time. I was like, wow, what a tangle this essay is.

[Holly]

Liz, we gotta have a talk.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah. She does have other practical travel tips in this as well, for women in general and for women traveling alone. Like, she recommends selecting seats and staterooms very well in advance, carrying letters of credit rather than large amounts of cash, keeping valuables in the hotel safe, and if you really do need to carry a lot of money around with you for some reason, put it in a silk bag around your neck.

[Holly]

In 1903, Bisland started working on something that surpassed her trip around the world in how well known it was, at least for a while. That was the two volume Life and Letters of Lefcadio Hearn. In 1890, Hearn had gone to Japan on assignment for Harper's, but he had left the magazine to pursue his own interests. A year later, he married Koizumi Setsu, who became his creative partner. Five years after that, he was adopted by a Japanese family so he could become a Japanese citizen, and he took the name Koizumi Yakumo. Hearn is not nearly as well known today as a lot of his contemporaries, but at the time he was one of the best known writers in English. He introduced a lot of information about Japan and Japanese culture to English speaking audiences, although in more recent times he has been criticized for exoticizing Japan.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

He died in 1904 and in spite of having become very well known in the US and Japan, he did not leave much money for his widow and their four children. Bisland made an agreement with Koizumi Setsu saying that she would publish this work and Koizumi would receive all of the money from it. Then this became complicated when black journalist Alethea Foley said that she and Hearn had gotten married in 1874 and that they had never gotten divorced. Foley filed suit for the proceeds from the book, but this marriage was found to be invalid because it had been illegal under Ohio's anti miscegenation laws. When it happened, Ohio was of course where they had gotten married. Bisland glossed over all of this in her work on him.

[Holly]

In addition to the books we've already mentioned, Bisland published essays in a range of magazines and other publications. For example, her 1910 essay Societies for Minding One's Own Business was published in the North American Review. It was about efforts to bring the kinds of services that are available in many cities to rural communities. Minding one's own business meant, quote, to see that our taxes are properly spent, that the elected officials do their duty, that our roads are kept in order, the public health guarded, the laws obeyed, the schools maintained at a high standard, the beauty of the countryside preserved and increased, and that every one of us has an opportunity for helpful pleasure. She described one such society as having three membership tiers based on income, with annual dues of $25, $10 or $5, but everyone having the same voting rights and eligibility for office in the society, regardless of how much dues they paid. The society was maintaining libraries, establishing kindergartens, hiring a nurse to care for people who didn't have the means, and providing other services.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Bisland's husband died in 1919. Her last collection of essays, the Truth About Men and Other Matters, was published in 1927. Its title essay, unsurprisingly from that title, was focused on gender. She wrote, quote, whatever has been recorded of the human male, his deeds, his aspirations, his nature, needs and qualities, has been written, said and sung by himself. Whatever has been told of woman, her faults, her vices, her limitations, and more especially her loquacity and vociferousness, has also been set down by the same hand. The record of the race hitherto accepted as the truth about ourselves has been the story of facts and conditions as the male saw them or wished to see them. So far we have not heard at all what the truth may have seemed as seen through the consciousness of the other sex.

[Holly]

Later on in this essay she wrote, quote, perhaps no secret can be kept forever here and there of late the hitherto so sacredly guarded feminine tongue. Amidst murmurs of revelation, generally accepted beliefs imposed upon the race by the constantly reiterated masculine assertions are, along with every creed, being finally cross examined.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

One of the essays in this book is straightforwardly antisemitic. In this essay she acknowledges that Jewish people have faced persecution for centuries, but then she frames that persecution as being the inevitable result of there being parasites. She tries to make the argument that, quote, intrinsically the parasite is neither reprehensible or contemptible it but acts by the laws of its nature. But this is an anti Semitic and frankly offensive trope that a lot of people were writing about in the 1920s and 30s. After Bisland's lifetime, this kind of reasoning was part of the underpinning of Nazi Germany's racial policies in the Holocaust.

[Holly]

Elizabeth Bisland died of pneumonia on January 6, 1929, at the age of 67. She died in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was buried with her husband at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. An obituary ran in the New York Times, which did not mention her trip around the world, but did list seven stages among her public works.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The terms of Bisland's will established the Charles and Elizabeth Wetmore Fund, a charitable fund to provide care for people with tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases and disorders and to fund research into such disorders in and around the city of New Orleans.

[Holly]

Her book Three Wise Men of the east was published posthumously by the University of North Carolina Press. It drew from her travels in Asia and other research to write biographies of three figures from three countries. Shah Jahan, 5th Mughal Emperor of India, Qianlong Manchu, Emperor of China, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, samurai and Daimyo, who is described as one of the great unifiers of Japan, the press reissued this book in 2018 and describes Bisland as demonstrating great sensitivity to the distinguishing national characteristics and inner spirit of the countries themselves.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Although Bisland did not want the kind of fame that had come from her trip around the world for the Cosmopolitan, it did help propel the career that she had after that was over. Regarding that magazine, in 1905 John Brisbane Walker sold it to William Randolph Hearst, who took it in a very yellow journalism direction as part of his rivalry with Pulitzer. It then went through another big shift in 1965 when Helen Gurley Brown became chief editor and made it into the Cosmopolitan women's magazine of today.

[Holly]

Do you have listener mail for us?

[Tracy B. Wilson]

I do have listener mail. The listener mail is about something that Holly and I actually discussed off screen. It is from Jen and the title of it is French Pronunciation Fun. And Jen wrote, dear Holly and Tracy, I adore the show and have listened for a decade now. I love how you broach a wide variety of topics and always with research and compassion. It's a breath of fresh historical air. Please keep being brilliant. I am writing about the differing pronunciation of the word catastrophe from the Lisbon earthquake episode. I was reminded of a comedy set in French by Eddie Izzard. Eddie Izzard has this brilliant set from her show in France, which she performs in French. It was filmed while she still publicly identified as a man and a transvestite. She talks about how the word for transvestite in French is pronounced as travesty, which in English means catastrophe. And she is walking about the stage going, bonjour, je suis un catastrophe. It is so funny I can't find it on YouTube, but the whole show is an extra on one of her DVDs as pet tax. Please find enclosed a picture of Nelson, the grumpy old Shetland. He is nearly 30 and likes to hang out alone in his field shelter, AKA his mansion and watch the world go by. He also loves Kisses. All the best, Jen. We have a picture of Jen being kissed by a Shetland pony. It is extremely cute. What an adorable little horse pony. Quadruped cutie pie. I found this very funny and it compelled me to go look. So part of this set in French is from the Dress to Kill special.

[Holly]

Yeah.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Which I then wound up watching at my desk and laughing at and feeling very proud of myself that I do know enough French that I can follow the parts of it that are in French in the actual comedy set. It does not include the part about je suis une catastrophe, which is also very funny. So Holly and I had a conversation after the Lisbon earthquake episode about how in French, which a lot of people in Morocco speak, catastrophe is pronounced catastrophe. I do not think that's why the. The speaker that we were talking about in that behind the scenes said it that way, because I think that speaker's first language was Spanish and Spanish does pronounce the E in catastrophe, although not quite as hard as Americans do in English. But it is very funny and a great chance to talk about Eddie Izzard. Because we love her, find her hilarious.

[Holly]

She's the most marvelous.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

So thank you very much for this email and these great pictures. I love Nelson. I I want to give him some pets and maybe if it's allowed, feed him something that he likes to eat. So yeah, thank you so much for this. If you would like to send us an email, we're at history podcastheartradio.com. the show notes to our episodes are on our website, which [e-mail] and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Abbel podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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[Ryan Seacrest]

Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 31st. Bring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Oreo, Haagen, Dazs, Charmin, Tide, Sparkling Ice, Reese's and Special K. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go. Pickup or delivery restrictions apply. See website for terms and conditions.

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[Holly]

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

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