LIBBY The Alaskan Diaries & Letters of Libby Beaman, 1879-1880 <i> edited by Betty John (Houghton Mifflin: $8.95) </i>

At Libby Beaman’s request for a favor from “Father’s old friend,” President Rutherford B. Hayes, her husband, John, was appointed assistant agent overseeing the seal-fur trade in the Alaskan Pribilof Islands. Libby would be the first white woman to sail to these distant islands, much against the will of her husband’s superior, identified only as the “Senior Agent, SA.” More difficult than being “icebound, rockbound, weather-bound” during that first year was the fact that Libby and John would live in a single cabin with the senior agent.

The senior agent’s presence in the cabin caused constant friction: John was extremely jealous and it was clear that the senior agent found Libby attractive. In her journals, Libby admits that she reciprocated his interest, though their passion was never acted upon.

Betty John, Libby’s granddaughter, collected the journals and letters into this fascinating volume, in whose epilogue she reveals the identity of the mysterious senior agent: Harrison Gray Otis, who returned to California and in 1882 founded the Los Angeles Daily Times, which later became the Los Angeles Times.