Metta Victoria Fuller Victor

Born in 1831 in Erie, Pennsylvania, she became a prolific writer, editor, and publisher in American popular literature. She wrote poetry, children's stories, domestic fiction, and sensational tales, and she was closely connected with the booming world of inexpensive mass-market publishing.

She is especially remembered for The Dead Letter, published in 1866, which is widely noted as an early American detective novel. Writing under several names, including Seeley Regester, she also worked with Beadle & Company, where her fiction reached a broad readership through dime novels and other popular formats.

Her career shows how much 19th-century women writers contributed to both literary culture and commercial publishing. She died in 1885, but her work still stands out for its range, energy, and place in the early history of mystery fiction.