Ellen Mahoney - Nellie Bly and Investigative Journalism for Kids: Mighty Muckrakers from the Golden Age to Today, with 21 Activities

2015 by Ellen Mahoney

All rights reserved

First edition

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61374-997-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mahoney, Ellen Voelckers.

Nellie Bly and investigative journalism for kids : mighty muckrakers from the golden age to today, with 21 activities / Ellen Mahoney. First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61374-997-5 (trade paper)

1. Investigative reportingJuvenile literature.

2. JournalismAuthorshipJuvenile literature. I. Title.

PN4781.M24 2015

070.43dc23

2014037538

Cover and interior design: Monica Baziuk

Interior illustrations: Jim Spence

Front cover images (clockwise from left): Nellie Bly, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa; Newsboys, Library of Congress LC-DIG-nclc-03364; Ida B. Wells, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library; Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post/Getty Images; Amy Goodman, Courtesy Democracy Now!; Upton Sinclair, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ggbain-06185

Back cover images (clockwise from left): Ida Tarbell, The Ida M. Tarbell Collection, Pelletier Library, Allegheny College; Jacob Riis, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-47078; Annie Leonard, Lindsay France, Cornell University; New York Times newsroom, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ds-02106; bellows camera, courtesy Rob Niederman

Printed in the United States

5 4 3 2 1

INDEX

Courtesy Rob Niederman

I n the early 1990s , when my daughter was in middle school, I set out at her suggestion to write a detailed biography of the life of Nellie Bly. This was no easy task in those days. The newspapers that made her famous had been out of business for many years. There was no Internet to ease finding records of her work. Nellie Bly left no personal archive of papers or letters, and she had no children to preserve her legacy. Even the four books she published during the 1880s and 1890s were long out of circulation. They could only be found at a few big city libraries.

Today, two decades after my book was published, Im happy that it remains a go-to source for learning about Nellie Bly and her place in both womens and journalism history.

The experience of getting involved with Nellie Bly continues to be gratifying. Ive learned how many middle school-aged children and present-day reporters and authors still find her story inspiringjust as I did as a schoolgirl and as my own daughter did a generation later. I see it in the enthusiasm of those who compete for National History Day honors year after year, or even the graduate students I encounter who base their masters projects or dissertations on her life and impact. I see it in the numerous books about her that have been published in the last two decades and in the revival of her best newspaper stories on the Web. I see it in the documentary about her life that is still widely available and in the plays and musicals and one-woman shows that continue to be produced about her.

Nellie Blys image appears on a commemorative US postage stamp; there are Nellie Bly artifacts on display at the Newseum in Washington, DC, and she at last has her rightful place in the National Womens Hall of Fame.

Now, 150 years after Blys birth, comes this wonderful, historically grounded account of Nellie Blys life and the muckrakers of her era. It includes an exciting array of activities and insight into why we continue to find this woman so remarkable a century and a half after her birth.

Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything. That is a Nellie Bly maxim, one of the many she not only said, but made it her business to live. Heres to Nellie Bly and to Ellen Mahoney for bringing her to you anew.

B ROOKE K ROEGER, author of Nellie Bly:
Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist

Authors collection