Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

In 1889, a feisty 25-year-old journalist named Nellie Bly was sent by her newspaper, the New York World, to break the record for the fastest trip around the globe. No one had come close to the 80-day claim of Jules Verne's popular novel, but still, this intrepid young reporter decided she could make it in 75 days. Adding to the pressure of her newspaper's daily updates to millions of readers on her progress, or lack of it, was the unexpected competition by The Cosmopolitan magazine, who sent their own young reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, in the opposite direction to try to beat Nellie. Capturing a world newly dominated by steamships, railroads and telegraphs, Goodman brings to life these two daring young career women, themselves very much ahead of their time, as they face wild ocean crossings and freezing mountain train journeys, unaided and alone. Ever aware that one small delay can lead to humiliating defeat, Bly and Bisland suffer intense anxiety--shared by readers--as their journeys come to a nail-biting conclusion.