Laura Jean Libbey
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Laura Jean Libbey (March 22, 1862 – October 25, 1924) was an American writer.
BiographyEdit
Libbey lived most of her life in Brooklyn, New York.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Her parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She began writing around age 20.<ref name=":0" /> Over the course of her career, she completed 82 novels.<ref name=":0" />
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.<ref name=":0" /> During the 1880s her stories were popular enough for Libbey to negotiate high paying exclusive contracts with specific papers.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> These serialized stories were later reprinted in dime novel format by publishers of cheap fiction such as George Munro, Arthur Westbrook, and John Lovell.<ref name=":0" />
Over fifteen million copies of her books were published.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At one point, Libbey reported she was earning $60,000 a year, but this number may have been exaggerated.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
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).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Libbey also wrote 120 plays, many based on her previously published stories.<ref name=":1" />
Known as the "working-girl" novelist,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Libbey's stories were romances about employed young women without family support.<ref name=":0" /> Her earliest stories (published in the 1880s) were moralistic and focused on the difficulties of factory work.<ref name=":1" /> The stories published in the 1890s and 1900s focused more on the process of finding an appropriate romantic partner.<ref name=":1" />
According to Joyce Shaw Peterson, Libbey's heroines show signs of being proto-feminists.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref> They work for a living, they are spirited, they are proud, they have integrity.<ref name=":3" /> When abducted they often manage to run away on their own.<ref name=":3" /> However, their permanent safety always depends upon male protection.<ref name=":3" /> There is no female solidarity in Libbey's stories, other women are jealous rivals for the attentions of men.<ref name=":3" /> Employment is an opportunity to find a wonderful husband, not a chance to find freedom and self-definition.<ref name=":3" /> Overall, Libbey's stories were outside the feminist stream of the time which focused on economic independence.<ref name=":3" />
Libbey also worked as an editor.<ref name=":0" /> From 1891 to 1894 she edited George Munro's Fashion Bazaar.<ref name=":0" /> Her financial records indicate that she received $10,400 a year for her editorial work.<ref name=":0" />
Supposedly Libbey's mother forbade her from marrying.<ref name=":0" /> Two years after Libbey's mother died in 1896 she married a Brooklyn lawyer by the name of Van Mater Stilwell.<ref name=":0" /> Libbey was 36 years old when she married.<ref name=":0" />
Libbey died at her home in Park Slope on October 25, 1924, after complications from cancer surgery.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=Dies>Template:Cite news</ref> She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.<ref name=Dies/> Libbey's papers are held by Rutgers University.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
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