Nellie Bly’s Race Around the World

The story as it is told

In 1889 Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg held a record every reader knew: around the world in eighty days. Nellie Bly, the star stunt reporter of the New York World, bet she could beat him. She would go alone, with one small bag, and she would not take a day more than she needed.

She came home in 72 days, to cheering crowds.

What we can confirm

Bly pitched the idea a year early. The Heinz History Center's account says her editor answered that she would need a male escort and too much luggage, and suggested sending a man. She replied, "Start the man, and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him." The paper finally sent her, at short notice, in November 1889. She sailed on the Augusta Victoria at 9:40 a.m. on Thursday, Nov 14, 1889, with a single small satchel (Heinz; Bly's own text gives the 9:40.30 start).

That same morning, John Brisben Walker, owner of the young Cosmopolitan, summoned his literary editor, Elizabeth Bisland. In her own 1891 account she writes that the request came "at half-past ten o'clock" and that the editor asked if she would leave New York "that evening" for San Francisco and continue around the world. She went west, Bly east.

In London, Bly learned that Jules Verne had invited her to visit. She detoured via Boulogne to Amiens. In her book's chapter "Jules Verne at Home," Verne tells her, through the journalist R. H. Sherard as translator, that he got the idea for Around the World in Eighty Days "from a newspaper." Le Siècle had printed calculations showing the trip could be done in 80 days, and Verne saw a twist the writers had missed: the difference in meridians. "Had it not been for the denouement I don't think that I should ever have written the book." He showed her a wall map on which he had traced Fogg's route in blue pencil, then marked where her route differed. Over a glass of wine he said, "If you do it in seventy-nine days, I shall applaud with both hands." Bly took it to mean he doubted she could manage the 75 she had promised.

Bly had no idea about Bisland until she reached Hong Kong, two days early, on Dec 23. At the Oriental and Occidental Steamship office the agent told her, "You are going to be beaten." Bly assumed he meant Time. He replied, "Time? I don't think that's her name." The other woman had left Hong Kong three days earlier, and Bly would be stuck there for five days. She answered stiffly: "I am not racing with anyone... I promised to do the trip in seventy-five days, and I will do it." The agent also got a detail wrong. He said the rival "worked for the same newspaper you do," but Bisland was a Cosmopolitan editor.

Bly spent Christmas Day in Canton. She then crossed the Pacific on the Oceanic, took a chartered train east from Oakland, and arrived in Jersey City at 3:51 p.m. on Jan 25, 1890, in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes, by the Heinz History Center's figures. Bisland arrived in New York on Jan 30, 1890, saying she had gone around the world in seventy-six days, per the En route Project of the Vatican Apostolic Library, which paraphrases her book. Both women crossed the Pacific on the same White Star ship, the Oceanic, in opposite directions: Bisland sailed on it from San Francisco on Nov 21, 1889 (her own account), and Bly came home on it. Heinz notes that Bly's record stood only a matter of months, beaten by George Francis Train in 67 days. She got no bonus or raise from the World and soon left the paper (Heinz).

The facts

• Bly started at 9.40.30 on Thursday, Nov 14, 1889. Bly, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days (1890), opening (seen via UPenn Celebration of Women Writers text in search results; chapter pages opened on Wikisource).
• Verne's "from a newspaper" / Le Siècle / meridians quote; the blue-pencil map; the "seventy-nine days... applaud with both hands" toast; "Good luck, Nellie Bly"; Sherard as translator. Bly, Chapter IV "Jules Verne at Home," en.wikisource.org
• The Hong Kong exchange: "You are going to be beaten," "Time? I don't think that's her name," the five-day delay, and "I am not racing with anyone." Bly, Chapter XII "British China," en.wikisource.org
• The Oriental reached Hong Kong two days ahead of schedule; the evening of Dec 22 was the last night at sea. Bly, Chapter XI, en.wikisource.org
• Bisland was summoned "at half-past ten o'clock" on Nov 14 and asked to leave "that evening." The Oceanic sailed from San Francisco Nov 21. Bisland, In Seven Stages (Harper, 1891), UPenn digital library, digital.library.upenn.edu (first stage opened and read 2026-10-29)
• "Start the man..." quote; Bisland left at 6:00 p.m.; the 3:51 p.m. Jan 25, 1890 Jersey City finish in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes; Train's 67 days; no bonus. Heinz History Center, "Nellie Bly: Around the World," heinzhistorycenter.org
• PBS American Experience quotes Bly's arrival at Amiens. pbs.org

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