The meeting with Verne and his wife was completely worth it. Nellie and Honorine Verne took to one another right away, as much as two people unable to speak a common language possibly could – holding hands and smiling at one another on the ride from the train station to the Verne home. Over tea in his living room, Verne was impressed at Nellie’s preparations and charmed by her personality, but was incredulous at her ambition. “It really is not to be believed that this little girl is going all alone around the world. Why, she looks like a mere child.” (Verne was 61 at the time.)

At lunch on Nov. 21, someone called out that they were in sight of land. As Nellie put it, “the way everyone rushed on deck was surely not surpassed by the companions of Columbus when they discovered America.” A festive dinner was prepared that night for the passengers departing for Southampton, and at 2:30 in the morning a tugboat pulled alongside to take them ashore.

Nellie woke up on Nov. 14 “before the milkman arrived,” and with sudden trepidations. She had never been on a ship before, never crossed an ocean.  “Shall I ever get back?” she wondered. Her fears were exacerbated by severe headaches every day for the past year. She had consulted physicians, who told her that the cause was obvious: she had been doing newspaper work every day for three years and needed a rest. Instead she was embarking on a trip around the world!

Welcome to “The New Colossus” blog, featuring the great Nellie Bly, her investigation of the mysterious death of poet and activist Emma Lazarus, and some of the colorful and formidable people Nellie encountered along the way. I especially wanted to launch the blog now because this fall marks the 125th anniversary of Nellie going around the world in 72 days, beating Jules Verne (and Phileas Fogg’s) mark. We’ll track her journey as a single woman traveling by herself around the globe in 1889, and her race against both Verne (and Fogg) and a competitor from “Cosmopolitan” magazine. I also want to mark some other events devotees of the era might want to discuss: the 145th anniversary of Jay Gould cornering the U.S. gold market, or Emma’s organizing the boycott of A.T. Stewart Department store and driving it into bankruptcy. Please check in every so often and jump in with comments or questions whenever you feel like it.