Overview of Stuff You Missed in History Class — "Elizabeth Bisland, Beyond the Trip Around the World"
This episode profiles Elizabeth Bisland (1861–1929), a Southern-born journalist, essayist, and editor best known today for a high-profile 1889–1890 round‑the‑world trip sent by The Cosmopolitan magazine to compete—unwittingly—with Nellie Bly. The hosts place that trip in the context of Bisland’s broader life and career: her Southern plantation upbringing, long journalism career, literary accomplishments (including editing Lafcadio Hearn’s Life and Letters), problematic social views typical of her era, and her later life as the wife of industrialist Charles Wetmore.
Key takeaways
- Bisland was more than the “woman who raced Nellie Bly.” She had a substantial literary-journalistic career before and after the trip.
- Her family’s prewar wealth derived from enslaved labor on Fairfax Plantation in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana; the Civil War and Reconstruction drastically changed their circumstances.
- The 1889 trip (Bisland’s in the opposite direction of Bly’s) brought notoriety she had tried to avoid; Bisland’s account is literary and restrained versus Bly’s sensational reporting.
- Bisland later produced notable editorial and biographical work (especially on Lafcadio Hearn) and wrote practical travel essays for women—some progressive, some reflecting racist/sexist attitudes of the time.
- Her later essays include explicitly antisemitic material; her career and legacy are therefore mixed and must be understood in historical context.
Chronological biography — essentials
- Born: Feb 11, 1861, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana (Fairfax Plantation family).
- Childhood: Family wealth based on enslaved labor (~120 enslaved people). Civil War disrupted plantation life; Battle of Bisland (April 12–13, 1863) affected the region.
- Early writing: Self-taught French, wrote poetry under the pen name B.L.R. Dane; worked for the New Orleans Times-Democrat (from ~1881).
- Move to New York: Around 1887 with $50; Chester Lord (New York Sun) helped get her started; became literary editor at The Cosmopolitan and wrote widely (often without byline).
- Marriage: Charles Whitman Wetmore (industrialist) — married Oct 6, 1891; lived at Applegarth (Long Island).
- Later work: Edited the two-volume Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (1903); wrote essays on travel, community organizations, gender, and other topics.
- Death: Jan 6, 1929, Charlottesville, VA; buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, NY.
The 1889–1890 world trip (vs. Nellie Bly)
- Context: Nellie Bly announced her Around-the-World attempt Nov 14, 1889. Cosmopolitan owner John Brisben Walker decided to send Bisland in the opposite direction to generate attention for the magazine.
- Assignment: Bisland was summoned and left for San Francisco the same day (she tried to protest; didn’t want the notoriety).
- Direction and duration: Bisland traveled opposite to Bly (i.e., in a different direction around the globe). Bisland completed the trip in 76 days (arrived Jan 30, 1890); Bly completed hers in 72.
- Publicity and coverage: Newspapers provided daily coverage of Bly; Cosmopolitan (a monthly) serialized Bisland’s account later (April–October issues) and published it as a book a year later, Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World.
- Tone difference: Bly’s narrative is sensational and crowd-focused; Bisland’s is more literary, reflective, and poetic.
- Notable incident: Bisland was misinformed (or misled) about a ship departure in France and made slower arrangements, which likely cost her the win.
Major works, roles, and style
- Journalism/editorial: Literary editor at The Cosmopolitan; wrote monthly book reviews (“In the Library”), travel essays, features on city life and domestic topics.
- Books/collections:
- Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World (account of the voyage).
- A Candle of Understanding (novel, 1903) — draws on Southern background; contains Lost Cause influences.
- The Secret Life; At the Sign of the Hobby Horse; The Truth About Men and Other Matters (essay collections).
- Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (editor, 2 vols., 1903).
- Three Wise Men of the East (posthumous; reissued 2018).
- Style: Elegant, literary, descriptive; often restrained compared with contemporaneous stunt reporting. She offered practical travel advice and cultural observation, aimed largely at middle‑class women travelers.
Controversies and problematic views
- Origins: Bisland’s family fortune came from slaveholding; her early life was shaped by plantation society and the Lost Cause milieu.
- Racism & imperialism: Some of her fiction and essays reflect Lost Cause mythology and the era’s ethnocentric language (e.g., references to “civilized” vs. “semi‑civilized” countries).
- Antisemitism: A 1927 essay in The Truth About Men contains explicitly antisemitic tropes (e.g., describing Jewish people with “parasite” language). The episode highlights this as part of the darker side of her oeuvre, and a reminder to read historic figures critically.
- Hearn biography controversy: Legal dispute surfaced when Alethea Foley claimed a prior marriage to Hearn; her marriage claim was later declared invalid under Ohio anti‑miscegenation law. Bisland glossed over complexities in her Hearn biography and financial arrangements.
Legacy and impact
- Bisland’s round‑the‑world trip raised Cosmopolitan’s profile and likely helped grow its circulation (to ~60,000 by 1892).
- She remained an influential editor and writer, bridging travel writing, literary editing, and social essays.
- Her career illustrates late‑19th/early‑20th‑century opportunities and constraints for women writers—both the possibilities of professional literary life and the era’s prevailing prejudices.
- Philologically and historically interesting works (e.g., Hearn biography, Three Wise Men of the East) preserve contemporaneous cross‑cultural perceptions—valuable but needing critical read-throughs.
Notable quotes from the episode/transcript
- On being thrust into journalism: “Almost before I was grown, I was thrust out of leisure into the life of journalism.”
- On arriving back in New York by sea: “The water has smoothed itself into a bay, and a huge gray woman holding an uplifted torch awaits our coming… Suddenly, a great flood of familiarity washes away the memory of the strange lands…”
Recommendations / further reading and listening
- Read:
- Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World — Bisland’s account of her voyage.
- The Secret Life; The Truth About Men and Other Matters — for her essays (read critically for period prejudices).
- Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (ed. Bisland) — influential editorial work.
- Three Wise Men of the East (posthumous, reissued) — biographical sketches from her travels.
- Listen:
- This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class for a concise, contextual summary.
- Contemporary pieces on Nellie Bly for contrast (to understand the media spectacle that framed Bisland’s trip).
- Research with caution: Bisland’s work reveals as much about late‑Victorian/Edwardian cultural attitudes as it does about travel and literature—approach with historical critical awareness.
This summary condenses the episode’s main biographical facts, the details and dynamics of the 1889–1890 voyage, Bisland’s broader literary career, and the moral complexities of her views and legacy.