by Kim Todd
critics of, 250, 251
death of, 255
death of daughter, Lucille, 220
as Hearst competitor, 7–8, 182, 188, 194–95, 203
innovations instituted by, 141–42
mission of his newspaper, 120–21
as owner New York World, 19–21, 24, 91, 171, 182, 188
as owner St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19–20
professionalization of journalism, 254
Pulitzer Building and, 114, 120, 120–21
Pullman, George Mortimer, 163
Pullman Company strike, 163–65
Quick or the Dead, The (Rives), 281
Reading Times, 153
Reagan, Leslie, 278–79
Red Record, A (Wells), 173, 174, 272
Remaking of an American (Banks), 296
Remington, Frederick, 245, 249
Restell, Madame, 73–74, 75, 77
Riis, Jacob A., 113–14, 270, 287
Rives, Amelie, 281
Rochelle Herald, 281
Rolling Nowhere (Conover), 275
Roosevelt, Theodore, 185–86, 241, 243, 252, 256
Rosen, Minnie, 229, 230, 236
Russ, Joanna, 259
“Ruth Herrick’s Assignment” (Jordan), 146–48
Rutland, Lucile, 200
Sack, John, 268
St. Clair, Augustus, 74–75
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19–20, 24–25
St. Paul Globe, 87, 126
abortion story, 77–78
Banks and, 84, 86–87, 287
Valesh and investigative series by, 43–46, 49, 51, 51, 61, 155, 224
Salem Gazette, 6
Salt Lake Herald, 36
San Francisco, Ca., 88, 91, 102
earthquake of 1906, 290–91
San Francisco Call, 178
San Francisco Examiner, 4, 23, 91, 291
ambulance stunt by Black, 102–4, 157
Black as “Annie Laurie,” 88, 93–95, 121–22, 122, 176–77, 195, 290–91
Bly’s race around the world, 96–98, 104–5
on Bly’s marriage, 170
city hospital abuse revealed, 102, 104
girl stunt reporters and Helen Dare, 94–95, 196–97, 197, 216, 206, 279
Hearst and, 23, 91–93
Kelly’s grizzly capture, 93, 206n, 285
nativism and, 92
young women seeking jobs at, 88–89
Sawaya, Francesca, 258
Scimitar newspaper, 136
Scribner’s Magazine, 114
Seaman, Robert, 169–70, 184
sexual harassment, 5, 7, 59–60, 61, 64, 115, 118
“Sham Emigrant’s Voyage to New York, A” (Heaton), 61–62
Shaw, Anna, 176
“‘Shield’s’ Girl Reporter” (Millard), 163
Shotwell, Clerihew & Lothman clothing factory, St. Paul, Minn., strike and investigative series on, 44–46, 49–53
Sinclair, Upton, 9, 270
“Slouching Towards Bethlehem” (Didion), 269
Smith, Ballard, 115, 119
sob sisters, 256, 270, 294
“Song of the Shirt, The” (Hood), 154
Southern Horrors (Wells), 139, 139n, 172
Spanish-American War, 240, 242–50
backlash against Pulitzer and Hearst, 249–50, 290, 298
female reporters and, 245–48
Hearst as war correspondent, 243–44
impact on journalism, 254
male reporters and, 243–44, 248
stunt genre’s collapse and, 245–48, 254
Stackhouse, Eleanor. See Marks, Nora
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 23n, 175, 187
Stead, W. T., 38, 39, 159, 210
Steffens, Lincoln, 9, 256, 270
Steinem, Gloria, 272–73
Stiffed (Faludi), 274
Stone, Lucy, 131
Storey, William, 54
Story of Evangelina Cisneros, The (Hawthorne), 244
“Study in Scarlet, A” (Conan Doyle), 48
stunt reporting (by women), 133, 279
activism and, 42, 211–13, 252
anonymity and, 206, 246, 252, 276–88
Banks introduces to England, 153–63
beginnings, Bly’s exposé of Blackwell Island’s Insane Asylum, 5, 27, 28–37
beginnings, Girl Reporter’s abortion exposé, 68, 68–70, 69, 74, 78–79
careers following demise of genre, 262
circulation war of the 1890s and, 7–8
as commonplace, 198–99, 206
continuing genre of, 272–77
critics and opponents of, 7–8, 84, 199–200, 206, 252–53, 276
as damaging a career, 206, 272–73, 283
dangers of, 206–7, 224, 252
“daring journalist” image, 192–93
depicted in fiction, 253–54
detectives and, 42–53, 78, 153, 255
double standard for, 9, 276–77
earnings, 187
education level of reporters, 175, 254
engaging the reader and, 5, 36, 40–41, 48, 59, 67, 73, 78, 161, 168, 182, 192, 196, 199, 207–8n, 225–26, 226n, 250–51
expanding roles for women, 7
exploitation of, 205, 284
freedom of life of, 217–18, 274
genre’s collapse, 245–58
impact on journalism, 7, 54, 105, 271
independence of women and, 105–6
intimate tone and structure of, 7, 286n
issues faced by, 8
Lockhart’s new territory for, 168–69
marriage and, 169–72, 174–75
muckraking and, 7, 9, 256, 257, 270
multiplying of reporters, 197–200
narrative-based nonfiction and, 269
New Journalism and, 7, 9, 268, 270
as not quite respectable, 112, 133–34
as not taken seriously, 275–77
popularity of, 279
reform efforts and, 157
reporters of the late 1880s and early 1890s, 174–75, 174–75n, 270
rights of women and, 5–7
sexual topics and, 205–6
societal impact of, 5, 114–15
stories similar to detective novels, 48
taboos broken by, 78, 78n
topics covered by, 7
undercover investigations, 1–4, 9, 38, 44–53, 56–58, 60, 64, 64–66, 141, 158–62, 215, 254–55, 273, 274
unscrupulous assigning editors and, 218
as way into journalism, 253, 262, 272
white-owned newspapers and, 134
youth necessary for, 157, 157n, 175
suffrage and suffragists, 14, 175, 176, 185, 187, 297, 298
Sweet, Ada, 89, 89, 90, 98, 99, 100, 285
Marks and, 99, 101, 285
Tales of the City Room (Jordan), 247
Tarbell, Ida, 257
Ten Days in a Mad-House (Bly), 28–37, 29, 39, 40
“They Work in an Inferno” (Nelson), 65
Thompson, Hunter S., 268, 270–71
Thomson, Mortimer, 38
Times-Picayune, 48
Tompkins, Elizabeth A., “Helen Dare,” 150–51, 196–97, 197, 216, 274
Toronto Mail and Empire, 247–48
“Truth About Lynching” (Wells), 136–37
Tucker, Josiah, 207
Valesh, Eva McDonald, “Eva Gay,” 42–53, 86, 149, 175n, 221, 228, 268, 285, 293–94
appearance, 42, 224
Dingley interview, 232
exposés by, “a crusade for women,” 53
factory conditions investigated, 44–46
influence on women and journalism, 58, 61, 271
Journal firing of, 246
as labor activist, 51–52, 149, 223, 230
marriages, 222–24, 223n, 293–94
McKinley interview, 232
Minnesota origins, 43, 222, 223
New Bedford strike and advocating for “Journal’s bill,” 221, 226–32, 238–39
&nb
sp; at New York Journal, 222, 224–33, 293
People’s Party and, 222
philosophy of, 226, 238
St. Paul Globe and, 43–44, 51, 51, 60, 86
Suicide Club article, 224–25
Valesh, Frank, 222
VIDA (Women in Literary Arts), 9
Voice from the South, A (Cooper), 132
Walls, Jeannette, 269
Washington Bee, 137–38
Watterson, Helen, 142
Webb, Beatrice, 176
Weekly Pioneer Times, 170
Wells, Ida B. (later Wells-Barnett), 7, 133, 133–37, 175, 247, 250, 263–65, 264, 287, 296–97, 297n
Afro-American League and, 263, 265
anti-lynching campaigns, 134–37, 139, 139n, 172–74, 216, 247, 263, 296–97
discussion of women’s bodies, 137
dispatches from abroad, 172–73
as editor, Chicago Conservator, 174
Free Speech and Headlight, 135, 139
influence on journalism, 271–72
marriage, 174
Matthews holds benefit for, 139–40
in New York City, 136–37
nickname and pen name, 133, 139
suffrage movement and, 297
threats against, 136
World’s Columbian Exposition, 150
writing career, 133
West, James J., 55, 60, 81, 98–99
Weyler, General Valeriano, 198
When Abortion Was a Crime (Reagan), 278–79
Willard, Frances, 173, 199–200
Wilson, Erasmus, 14–15, 19, 23, 39
Without You There Is No Us (Kim), 276
Wolcott, James, 269–70
Wolfe, Tom, 9, 268, 269, 271
Woman’s Bible (Stanton), 187
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, 173, 199
women
abortion issue and censorship of reproductive information, 71, 82–83
birthrates and number of children, 78
Bly inspiring, 37, 48, 62, 84, 166–67
Bly’s impact on the perception of, 39
Bly’s messages to, 63
criminal justice system and, 189
depicted as powerless, 38–39
diagnosis of “hysteria” and, 32–33
expanding roles for, 7, 138
as factory workers, 44–46, 47, 52, 154–55
false advertising aimed at, 123, 123n
independence and, 105–6, 154–55, 156
inferiority of, science and, 6, 125
as jurors, 130–31, 130n, 256
labor strikes and, 221, 222
labor unions and, 47
legal practice by, 6
male pseudonyms for, 6
marriage as support, 169–72, 174–75
Midwest and liberal attitudes, 174–75n
midwifery and, 71–72
models for midlife career women, 175
nature of womanhood, 130–31
newspapers and opportunities, 62, 205
physical freedom, Lockhart and, 169
professionalization of journalism as barrier to, 255
rights limited, 5–6, 14, 47, 227
sexual harassment of, 5, 7, 59–60, 61, 64, 115, 118
unfair labor practices and, 227–28
vulnerability and trafficking, 259–61
wage inequity and, 52, 53
“women’s sphere,” 14, 15
writing, from a female perspective, 8–9
writing by, devaluing of, 5, 6, 269
Women & Power (Beard), 207–8n
“Women in Gutter Journalism” (Cahoon), 284
Woodhull, Victoria, 67
Woolf, Virginia, 8
World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), 149–51, 197, 214
Tompkins disappearance, 150–51, 197
yellow journalism, 8, 67–68, 188, 203, 207–8, 207–8n, 231, 236, 239, 249–54, 250n, 262, 298
Banks’s critique of, 252–53, 284
critics of, 250, 250n, 250n, 252
female undercover reporters and, 252–53
New Journalism influenced by, 270
professionalization of journalism and, 254
term coined, 207
World and Journal banned and, 208
Yurick, Sol, 270
About the Author
KIM TODD is the award-winning author of several books, including Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, and Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America, winner of the PEN/Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Her essays and articles have appeared Smithsonian, Salon, Sierra magazine, Orion, and Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies, among other publications. She is a member of the MFA faculty at the University of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis with her family.
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Also by Kim Todd
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Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America
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SENSATIONAL. Copyright © 2021 by Kim Todd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition MARCH 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-284363-0
Version 02162021
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-284361-6
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*About $6,000 in 2020.
*Throughout the nineteenth century, “Pittsburgh” was spelled both with and without the “h.”
*Elizabeth Cady Stanton sent in a plea on behalf of her son.
*As Jean Marie Lutes, author of Front-Page Girls, Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, told me in an interview: “One of the paradoxes of the way that women journalists like Bly worked was that they took the thing that was used to disempower them—their physical vulnerability and the way they were objectified—and turned that into an asset.”
*A suit the company ultimately abandoned.
*Their efforts would eventually result in the passage of the (short-lived) 1893 Illinois Factory Law that limited women to an eight-hour workday and res
tricted child labor.
*Statistics for other populations are less available.
*Abortion is famously the thing that can’t be talked about—see Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” a 1927 short story often used to teach the concept of subtext.
*A conspiracy-minded reader might wonder whether the World also was behind Bisland’s trip. The story gains tension and drama as a race against a real woman as well as the fictional character of Phileas Fogg. And Bisland is listed as part of the editorial department in the World’s 1889 office directory.
*Chicago physician Dr. P. H. Cronin had fallen afoul of a group of Irish extremists, and his body ended up in the sewer. His murder in May 1889 and the resulting trial captivated the country. It is interesting to note that he was one of the many who wrote a letter in response to the Girl Reporter’s exposé, pointing the paper to a case where a husband coerced his unwilling wife into having an abortion.
*One wonders if he had actually met her.
*After the 1906 Food and Drugs Act, the Bureau of Chemistry analyzed a sample of Gervaise Graham’s “Cactico Hair Grower,” guaranteed to grow hair on bald heads, and found the tincture contained mostly water with a little alcohol, borax, glycerin, and pepper, and determined it wouldn’t work. Graham paid a $50 fine.
*It wasn’t until 1975 that the Supreme Court ruled states couldn’t create laws that discouraged women from participation on juries, and 1994 when peremptory challenges based solely on sex were outlawed.
*She would dedicate the book to “the Afro-American women of New York and Brooklyn, whose race love, earnest zeal and unselfish effort at Lyric Hall, in the City of New York, on the night of October 5,1892—made possible its publication.”
*It’s interesting that those who watched the trial unfold, the whole jury, most newspapermen (at least the ones Elizabeth Jordan talked to), Jordan herself, and even the judge, with his sympathetic jury instructions, were convinced Lizzie was innocent. While, now—at least among those who write television and movie adaptations—the consensus is that she was guilty. Did the prosecution just do a spectacularly bad job? Are modern-day interpreters more willing to consider female rage and psychosis? Or were viewers at the time, crammed into that hot courtroom, feet away from Lizzie and the police and their ax collection, able to see something that we can’t?