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Collected Works of Journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochran) in 3 MP3 CDs

Nellie Bly (May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922) was the pen name of American journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within.

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days
Read by Mary Reagan.
Running Time:6:05:31 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This is a true account by an American woman journalist who, in 1889, set out to see whether she could beat the fictional journey in Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. Wearing one dress and carrying one handbag, Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (pen name “Nellie Bly”), reported her travels back to avid readers in America.

Six Months In Mexico
Read by James K. White
Running Time:8:13:20 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
This is an account of Nellie Bly's travels through Mexico in 1885. The book was originally a series of individual articles that she submitted to the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper for publication. In them she described the conditions of the people and the political system she found in Mexico. Her narratives focused mostly on the impoverished and disadvantaged in a country whose government was extremely corrupt.

Bly was perhaps what we now term a feminist, striving for the empowerment and independence of women. She certainly pioneered the field of investigative reporting. Nevertheless, Bly's journalistic objectivity is often tainted by an uninformed, 19th-century, "gringo" world view.

Bly's travels in Mexico ended abruptly after the Dispatch published an article, she wrote exposing that government's ill treatment of another journalist who criticized the regime of President Porfirio Diaz. Bly's Mexico articles were later published in book form in 1888.

Ten Days in a Madhouse
Read by Alice
Running Time:2:41:47 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
In 1887 Nellie Bly, one of the first female newspaper writers, and a young reporter who would soon go on to make a career for herself as an investigative journalist and "stunt" reporter, had herself committed to the Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York. Her purpose was to discover what life was like for those who had been deemed insane. She was surprised to discover the depth of mistreatment of the patients. Partially as a result of her reporting, more money was allocated to the asylum and reforms were put into place. 

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Public Domain Books

A public-domain book is a book with no copyright, a book that was created without a license, or a book where its copyrights expired or have been forfeited.

In most countries the of copyright expires on the first day of January, 70 years after the death of the latest living author. The longest copyright term is in Mexico, which has life plus 100 years for all deaths since July 1928.

A notable exception is the United States, where every book and tale published before 1926 is in the public domain; American copyrights last for 95 years for books originally published between 1925 and 1978 if the copyright was properly registered and maintained.