Just the Facts: Book Discussion Recap from July 23

Seven people passed on a lovely summer evening in their yards to attend the book discussion. Their presence, as always, was much appreciated.

The book last night was Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s history-making race around the world by Matthew Goodman. Nellie Bly was one of America’s first female reporters. Working for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Most women working for newspapers were relegated to the “women’s page,” covering society, fashion, homemaking, and child rearing. Bly actually did investigative reporting, going undercover to report on insane asylums, crooked politicians, and much more. She proposed a story to her editor where she would sail to England and then sail back in steerage to expose the horrific conditions. Her editor countered by ordering her to take a trip around the world in less than eighty days, defeating the hero of Jules Verne’s popular novel. Not to be outdone, the publisher of the popular magazine Cosmopolitan ordered his literary editor, the beautiful and genteel Elizabeth Bisland, to make the same journey, but in the opposite direction. Thus, two remarkable women commenced a race against each other, against winds, weather, and time, and against Phileas Fogg. It was against all convention for a woman to travel any distance at all without escort and now two lone women were making this round the world journey. The book is filled with humor, history, adventure and the observations these two young woman made about the lands they traversed. The book was enjoyed by all.

Our nest meeting will be on Thursday, August 20th, 2015 at 7:00 pm. The book to be discussed, Birdmen: the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the battle to control the skies by Lawrence Goldstone, is available at the Circulation Desk. All are welcome.