Meanwhile, city officials began investigating the institution. A month later, a grand jury panel went with
Bly to visit the asylum. But it was too late. Inmates who told Bly of their treatment had been transferred or
released. Buildings had been scrubbed down and patients had better food and water, according to Kroeger’s
book.
But despite the cover-up, the grand jury believed what Bly had written. Shortly after the visit, officials
added nearly $1m to the asylum’s budget, an enormous amount for 1887, according to Kroeger’s book.
Bly’s two-part series was released as a book two months later, called Ten Days in a Mad-House.
Bly established her reputation as a “stunt girl” with a social justice bent. She went on to write exposés of
baby-selling rackets and harsh conditions for factory workers, Kroeger writes.
Two years later, Bly made an even bigger splash with her series following the same route as the Phileas
Fogg character in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. She made the trip in 72 days, to much
acclaim.
When she returned, she expected a bonus or more recognition. But Joseph Pulitzer barely acknowledged
her feat. In response, Bly quit the New York World in disgust, Kroeger writes.
Nellie Bly didn’t return to journalism until much later in her life, when she covered the eastern front during
the First World War, according to Kroeger’s book. She died of pneumonia in 1922 at age 57. But her
groundbreaking Ten Days in a Mad-House ushered in a new age of newspaper writing.
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