"PLUCKY NELLIE BLY!" “No young writer has ever leaped into such sudden fame in New York as Miss Nellie Bly, who did that lunatic asylum exposure for the New York World. She is a bright, handsome young lady, less than twenty years old, who came to the metropolis from Pittsburg a few months ago, and pluckily undertook to make her living by newspaper work in the great city. She deceived the expert physicians who examined her, and pronouncing her insane they consigned her to one of the insane wards of Blackwell’s Island, where she dwelt among horrors for ten days, noting down in her quick brain all that she saw and heard. The old song says: “Nellie Bly, shuts her eye When she goes to sleep,” but she seems never to have closed a peeper during the whole of that trying ordeal. Her narrative of the horrors of the place—the indifference of doctors, the neglect and cruelty of the nurses and the tortures inflicted upon the unfortunates, is told in a plain, straightforward manner and attests at once to her humanity and truth.” - November, 1887 This volume collects for the first time ever all the reporting surrounding Nellie Bly’s blockbuster undercover story that launched her to fame, including all three versions from her own pen: - Bly's initial account across three articles for the New York World - Bly's bestselling book Ten Days In A Mad-House - Bly's long-form 1889 article Among The Mad for Godey's Lady's Book Also included are over two dozen contemporary articles relating to Bly's madhouse stay, including the attempt by the New York Sun to scoop Bly on her own story! With a foreword by David Blixt, author of What Girls Are Good For: A Novel Of Nellie Bly, The Master Of Verona, and Her Majesty's Will.

“A riveting character-driven dive into 19th-century New York and the extraordinary history of Blackwell’s Island.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica On a two-mile stretch of land in New York’s East River, a 19th-century horror story was unfolding . . . Today we call it Roosevelt Island. Then, it was Blackwell’s, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals. Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world ever seen, Blackwell’s Island quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, “a lounging, listless madhouse.” In the first contemporary investigative account of Blackwell’s, Stacy Horn tells this chilling narrative through the gripping voices of the island’s inhabitants, as well as the period’s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated Nellie Bly. Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Horn brings this forgotten history alive: there was terrible overcrowding; prisoners were enlisted to care for the insane; punishment was harsh and unfair; and treatment was nonexistent. Throughout the book, we return to the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell’s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man’s inhumanity to man. In Damnation Island, Stacy Horn shows us how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us—and reminds us how much work still remains.

In 1914, eleven-year-old Alex and his nine-year-old sister, Anna, are taken from New York City's Lower East Side to Blackwell's Island, where there are lunatics, prisoners, evil caretakers, ghouls, and, perhaps, their missing mother.

An astonishing discovery! Available for the first time in 125 years, the Lost Novels Of Nellie Bly! Pioneering undercover journalist Nellie Bly is rightly famous for exposing society's ills. From brutal insane asylums to corrupt politicians, she used the pages of the New York World to bring down all manner of frauds, cheats, and charlatans. What no one knows is that Nellie Bly was also a novelist. Because, of the twelve novels Bly wrote between 1889 and 1895, eleven have been lost - until now! Newly discovered by author David Blixt (What Girls Are Good For, The Master Of Verona), Nellie Bly's lost works of fiction are available for the first time! These are The Lost Novels of Nellie Bly! Nellie Bly's first novel, in a newly revised edition! A rejected marriage proposal and the corpse of a dead beauty confound Dick Treadwell’s hopes for happiness, until his beloved Penelope sets him a task: she will marry him if he solves—The Mystery of Central Park! Dick and his sweetheart Penelope discover the body of a beautiful young woman posed upon a Central Park bench. Instantly Dick is suspected of having something to do with the young woman’s death. Moreover, Penelope has long been urging the ne’er-do-well Dick to accomplish something with his life. So he sets out to discover the dead woman’s identity and solve the riddle of her death. Was it innocent? Suicide? Or was it murder? From the twinkling lights of New York’s high society to dens of iniquity, Dick follows every trail until he uncovers a tenuous lead. Saving another young woman from the jaws of death, he puts his happiness in jeopardy to confront the scoundrel responsible for the dead woman’s fate. Inspired by Bly’s own reporting during her time at the New York World, as she tracked down real-life scoundrels in both business and society, this edition combines both published versions of—The Mystery Of Central Park! This new edition combines both versions of Bly's first novel into one new text! Bonus: includes Bly's articles that inspired the story, including The Infamy Of The Park!

Haunted by childhood losses in spite of successful medical careers in 1883 New York City, surgeon Anna Savard and her obstetrician cousin, Sophie, consider taking in a child and helping a desperate young mother, while avoiding dangerous anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock.