Laura Jean Libbey

Laura Jean Libbey was an American author who lived from March 22, 1862, to October 25, 1924. Queens, New York, was where Libbey lived most of her time. The names of her parents are Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey. She started writing when she was twenty years old. She wrote 82 books over the course of her work. As short stories, some of Libbey works were first published in The New York Family Story Paper, The Fireside Companion, and the New York Ledger. In the 1880s, her stories were so well-known...See more

Laura Jean Libbey was an American author who lived from March 22, 1862, to October 25, 1924. Queens, New York, was where Libbey lived most of her time. The names of her parents are Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey. She started writing when she was twenty years old. She wrote 82 books over the course of her work. As short stories, some of Libbey works were first published in The New York Family Story Paper, The Fireside Companion, and the New York Ledger. In the 1880s, her stories were so well-known that Libbey was able to get exclusive, high-paying contracts with certain newspapers. Over time, cheap fiction authors like George Munro, Arthur Westbrook, and John Lovell published these serialized stories as dime novels. Her books have been sold more than fifteen million times. Newspaper called The American Bookseller said that Libbey's 1889 book The Pretty Young Girl was "the hit of the season" because it sold 60,000 copies in thirty days. Libbey said at one point that she was making $60,000 a year, but this number may have been too high. Three of Libbey's stories were turned into movies: When Love Grows Cold (1926), A Poor Girl's Romance (1927), and In a Moment of Temptation (1928). Libbey wrote 120 plays as well, and many of them were based on stories she had already written. See less