author
Lizzie Magie
1866–1948
Best known as the inventor of The Landlord’s Game, she created a sharp, playful critique of monopoly power decades before Monopoly became a household name. Her life mixed invention, writing, and reform-minded politics in a way that still feels surprisingly modern.
1 Audiobook
My betrothed, and other poems
by Lizzie Magie
About the author
Born in Illinois in 1866, Lizzie Magie was an American game designer, writer, feminist, and supporter of Georgism, the economic ideas of Henry George. She worked in Washington, D.C., wrote poetry and short fiction, and even patented an improvement for typewriters before creating the game that would define her legacy.
In 1904, she patented The Landlord’s Game, designed to show how land monopolies and unequal wealth could harm ordinary people. The game spread through informal homemade versions, and many of its ideas later appeared in Monopoly, though Magie’s original purpose was to criticize concentrated wealth rather than celebrate it.
She died in 1948, and for many years her role was overshadowed by the later commercial success of Monopoly. Today she is increasingly recognized as an inventive, funny, and deeply thoughtful creator whose work used play to make a serious political point.