Nellie Bly

In 1887, 23-year-old reporter Nellie Bly had herself committed to a New York City asylum for 10 days to expose the horrific conditions for 19th-century century mental patients.

Six Months in Mexico was written by Nellie Bly in 1888. It is an important work that shows what Mexico was like at the end of the 1800s, as well as Nellie Bly's perception and experience of Mexico, as a woman living there. Nellie Bly writes: "One Wintry Night I bade my few journalistic friends Adieu, And, accompanied by my mother, started on my way to Mexico."

Originally published in 1890 in book form, the text was based on Nellie Bly's newspaper articles for the New York World. In 1889, Bly went around the world as a journalism "stunt" to beat the fictional record of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg -- and even made a stop in France to meet Verne. Since no cover image has shown up for this edition, shown is an 1890s advertising card with Nellie Bly belting up the world.

Ten Days in a Mad-House is a book written by newspaper reporter Nellie Bly and published by Norman L. Munro in New York, NY in 1887. The book comprised Bly's reportage for the New York World while on an undercover assignment in which she feigned insanity to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island. The book's graphic depiction of conditions at the asylum caused a sensation, brought Bly lasting fame and prompted a grand jury to launch its own investigation, with Bly assisting. The jury's report resulted in an $850,000 increase in the budget of the Department of Public Charities and Corrections.