Laura Jean Libbey

Laura Jean Libbey (March 22, 1862 – October 25, 1924) was an American writer. Over the course of her career, she completed 82 novels. Her parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey. She began writing around age 20. These serialized stories were later reprinted in dime novel format by publishers of cheap fiction such as George Munro, Arthur Westbrook, and John Lovell. At one point, Libbey reported she was earning $60,000 a year, but this number may have been exaggerated. Libbey also wrote 120 plays, many based on her previously published stories. Libbey's stories were romances about employed young women without family support. They work for a living, they are spirited, they are proud, they have integrity.

Two years after Libbey's mother died, in 1896, she married a Brooklyn lawyer by the name of Van Mater Stilwell. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.