author
Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
1831–1885
A prolific 19th-century American novelist, she helped shape popular fiction in the United States and is often credited with writing one of the country’s earliest detective novels. Publishing under names including Seeley Regester, she reached a huge readership through domestic fiction, social problem novels, and dime novels.
6 Audiobooks
The Bad Boy at Home, and His Experiences in Trying to Become an Editor 1885
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
Nat Wolfe; or, The gold hunters: A romance of Pike's Peak and New York
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
The Dead Letter: An American Romance
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
The Blunders of a Bashful Man
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
Tagebuch eines bösen Buben
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter. A Forest Romance
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor
About the author
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1831, Metta Victoria Fuller Victor became a remarkably versatile writer whose career ranged from poetry and sentimental fiction to journalism and mass-market novels. She later married editor and publisher Orville J. Victor, and her work became closely tied to the fast-growing world of popular American publishing.
Victor is remembered in part for her connection to Beadle’s dime novels, where she wrote widely read fiction for a broad audience. She produced a large body of work and is often noted for The Dead Letter, a novel frequently described as one of the first detective novels in the United States. She also wrote about social issues, giving some of her fiction a more reform-minded edge.
Using several pen names, especially Seeley Regester, she built a career that was both commercially successful and influential. Her writing helped show how women authors could thrive in popular literature while also expanding the kinds of stories American readers eagerly followed in the 19th century.