Elizabeth Bisland (1861-1929) was an American author. She was an assistant editor at Cosmopolitan magazine in New York. When the newspaper's owner, John Brisben Walker, heard about Nellie Bly's trip around the world, he decided that he would make it a two-woman race. Bisland travelled west by train to San Francisco, then took a ship to the Orient. Her works include: In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World (1891), The Secret Life: Being the Book of a Heretic (1906) and The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (1906).