Matthew Scoggins

September 5, 2018
ENG 111
The life of Elizabeth Bisland

Elizabeth Bisland was an American journalist and author back in the late eighteen
hundred’s.(Goodman) Elizabeth was not only a writer and an author, she was also part of the
race around the world against Nellie Bly in 1889.(Goodman) Back then it was definitely crazy
for a woman to race around the world specially against another woman. That is what I think is so
weird that a woman from back then would even be capable of facing a man off. Normal woman
back then would definitely not be racing around the world and wouldn’t be an independent
woman as she is talked to be in Goodmans story. In Goodman’s story I has the title of “Elizabeth
Bisland’s Race Around the World” (Goodman) so the story would usually be about Elizabeth
Bisland racing around the world, but it really talks a lot about her life. Which is ok, because you
need to know about Elizabeth life, but if the title is about racing around the world then why is it
not more about the race. It did talk a little bit about who won the race and whether they had beat
the world record which was set by Phileas Fogg in 1973. In Goodman’s story is says “Elizabeth
Bisland succeeded in beating Phileas Fogg’s eighty-day mark, completing the trip in seventy-six
days – which would have been the fastest trip ever made around the world but for the fact that
Nellie Bly had arrived four days earlier.” (Goodman) so she beat the record, but she got beat by
Nellie. She was probably happy that she beat record, but she still lost. It must be pretty cool to be
like the only woman to race around the world but not only that but be famous back then as a
woman. “Prior to the around-the-world trip Bisland had never been out of the country before,
and during it she discovered a love of travel that would stay with her the rest of her life. This was
perhaps best exemplified in a late-night carriage trip she took to the Tanks of Yemen, a
remarkable system of ancient stone cisterns” (Goodman) But she feared being famous as she
returned home after the race because being famous back then is different than famous means
now days. Now you get famous just by sharing something on Facebook or Twitter, but back then
if your famous than the whole world would know about you and what you did to get famous.
After the race was done and over they quit talking about the race and talked about Elizabeth’s
life. Like after she left the United States because everything was just so bad with the publicity
and everything. (Goodman) She loved traveling after the race around the world even though she
had lost the race. She went to Great Britain and it just continues talking about her life. It is still
crazy that in 1800’s a woman would travel as much as Elizabeth did, and she did it by herself she
had no husband or someone to go with. But she then eventually went back to the United States
and there she married the corporate attorney Charles Wetmore, and together the two designed
and built an estate on Long Island. (Goodman) Elizabeth Bisland was a working writer right up
until the very end of her life. In 1927, at the age of sixty-five, she published her final essay
collection, entitled The Truth About Men and Other Matters. (Goodman) In this story from
Matthew Goodman it isn’t all about the race around the world because if it was it would have
talked a little about Nellie Bly other than that she had beat her. She completed the race in 72
days, but Matthew didn’t talk about her life he only talked about Elizabeth’s life. But I think this
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story definitely needs another title to the story like Elizabeth Bisland’s life and her race or
something about her life.
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Work Cited
Goodman, Matthew. “Elizabeth Bisland's Race Around the World.” The Public Domain Review,
publicdomainreview.org/2013/10/16/elizabeth-bislands-race-around-the-world/.