Last month,
I discussed the romance dime novel and gave three samples, to include what is
considered the first romance dime novel,
Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the
White Hunter. Laura Jean
Libby penned a story for that work, and it wasn’t her last. During the course
of her career, she sold over fifteen million copies of her books.
Born in
Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 1862 to Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey, Laura
lived most of her life in the city and began writing around age 20. Some of her
earlier works appeared in
The New York Family Story Paper,
The
Fireside Companion, and
New York Ledger and were popular
with readers, enabling her to negotiate exclusive contracts at higher salaries during
the 1880’s. Her earlier works were later reprinted in dime novels by publishers
George Munro, Arthur Westbrook, and John Lovell, with Laura striking it big in
1889 with
The Pretty Young Girl, which sold over 60,000 copies in
one month.
Though she had little formal
education, Laura was a savvy businesswoman and went on to edit Munro’s
Fashion
Bazaar from 1891-1994, earning over $10,000 per year, according to her
financial records.
During her
career, when fellow authors changed genres according to public likes and
dislikes, Laura stayed true to her genre
and voice. Many believed she used a format for her stories since they had the
same elements, but she denied the claims. As time progressed and interest in the
dime romance dwindled, she moved away from penning stories to writing a love
advice columnist for the New York Mail. Sadly, she met with
little success in this endeavor.
Little is
known about Laura’s private life, other than her mother forbid her to marry
young. At age 36, (two years after her mother’s passing) she married Brooklyn
lawyer Van Mater Stilwell. They had no children, as Laura’s writing career and
being identified as an author were more important to her, so much that even
after marrying Stilwell, she was still publicly known as Laura Jean Libbey. She
passed in 1924 due to complications from cancer surgery and was laid to rest in
Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
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