Ten Days in a Madhouse

Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (1864-1922), one of the first women to make a career as a newspaper reporter in the United States. She worked for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, and she became famous for daring assignments that came to be called stunt reporting. Later she would travel around the world in less than eighty days, an achievement that gave her international celebrity.

Ten Days in a Madhouse collects the articles she wrote after her undercover stay at the women's asylum on Blackwell's Island. She convinced doctors and judges that she was ill, and was committed, and then described the conditions she found. The exposé produced widespread public outrage, and a grand jury investigation followed, which resulted in increased funding for the care of the insane. The book has remained an important document in the history of both journalism and mental health care.

The recording has eight sections and lasts about two hours and forty minutes. It is read by LibriVox volunteer Alys AtteWater. Bly's prose is brisk and unadorned, and her descriptions are often unsettling, so listeners should expect some disturbing scenes. It is a powerful reminder of how one determined writer could change public policy, and an excellent introduction to the origins of investigative reporting. Today the book is also a record of how society treated vulnerable women, and how much has changed since then.