Laura Jean Libbey (March 22, 1862 – October 25, 1924) was an American writer.

Biography

Libbey lived most of her life in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey. She began writing around age 20. Over the course of her career, she completed 82 novels. Some of Libbey's stories first appeared as serialized stories in papers such as ''The New York Family Story Paper'', ''The Fireside Companion'', and the ''New York Ledger''. During the 1880s her stories were popular enough for Libbey to negotiate high paying exclusive contracts with specific papers. These serialized stories were later reprinted in dime novel format by publishers of cheap fiction such as George Munro, Arthur Westbrook, and John Lovell. Over fifteen million copies of her books were published. According to ''The American Bookseller'', Libbey's 1889 ''The Pretty Young Girl'' was "the hit of the season" in selling 60,000 copies in thirty days. At one point, Libbey reported she was earning $60,000 a year, but this number may have been exaggerated. Three of Libbey's stories were made into films: '' When Love Grows Cold'' (1926), ''A Poor Girl's Romance'' (1927), and ''In a Moment of Temptation'' (1928). Libbey also wrote 120 plays, many based on her previously published stories. Known as the "working-girl" novelist, Libbey's stories were romances about employed young women without family support. Her earliest stories (published in the 1880s) were moralistic and focused on the difficulties of factory work. The stories published in the 1890s and 1900s focused more on the process of finding an appropriate romantic partner. According to Joyce Shaw Peterson, Libbey's heroines show signs of being proto-feminists. They work for a living, they are spirited, they are proud, they have integrity. When abducted they often manage to run away on their own. However, their permanent safety always depends upon male protection. There is no female solidarity in Libbey's stories, other women are jealous rivals for the attentions of men. Employment is an opportunity to find a wonderful husband, not a chance to find freedom and self-definition. Overall, Libbey's stories were outside the feminist stream of the time which focused on economic independence. Libbey also worked as an editor. From 1891 to 1894 she edited George Munro's ''Fashion Bazaar''. Her financial records indicate that she received $10,400 a year for her editorial work. Supposedly Libbey's mother forbade her from marrying. Two years after Libbey's mother died in 1896 she married a Brooklyn lawyer by the name of Van Mater Stilwell. Libbey was 36 years old when she married. Libbey died at her home in

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in South Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Prospect Park and Eighth Avenue (Brooklyn), Prospect Park West to the east, ...

on October 25, 1924, after complications from cancer surgery. She is buried in

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...

in Brooklyn. Libbey's papers are held by Rutgers University.

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* ** * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Libbey, Laura Jean 1862 births 1924 deaths 19th-century American novelists 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery 20th-century American women writers 19th-century American women writers Dime novelists