author
Lizzie Magie
1866–1948
Best known as the inventor of The Landlord’s Game, she created a sharp, playful critique of economic inequality decades before Monopoly became a household name. Her life also included writing, invention, and outspoken support for reform.
1 Audiobook
My betrothed, and other poems
by Lizzie Magie
About the author
Born in Macomb, Illinois, in 1866, Lizzie Magie was an American game designer, writer, feminist, and supporter of Georgist economic ideas. She is remembered above all for creating The Landlord’s Game, a board game she patented in 1904 to show how land monopolies and rent-seeking could harm ordinary people.
Magie designed the game as a teaching tool inspired by economist Henry George’s ideas about land and taxation. Many features later associated with Monopoly can be traced back to her earlier design, though the commercial success of Monopoly long overshadowed her role in its history.
She also wrote and pursued other inventions, showing a wide-ranging, practical creativity. Today she is increasingly recognized not just as an overlooked inventor, but as someone who used games to argue that the rules of an economy shape who wins and who struggles.