21 Facts About Lizzie Magie

Elizabeth J Magie Phillips was an American game designer, writer, feminist, and Georgist.

Lizzie Magie invented The Landlord's Game, the precursor to Monopoly, to illustrate teachings of the progressive era economist Henry George.

Elizabeth J Magie was born in Macomb, Illinois, in 1866 to Mary Jane Magie and James K Magie, a newspaper publisher and an abolitionist who accompanied Abraham Lincoln as he traveled around Illinois in the late 1850s debating politics with Stephen Douglas.

Lizzie Magie was a short story and poetry writer, comedian, stage actress, feminist, and engineer.

At the age of 26, Magie received a patent for her invention that made the typewriting process easier by allowing paper to go through the rollers more easily.

Lizzie Magie worked as a news reporter for a brief time in the early 1900s.

Elizabeth Lizzie Magie was an outspoken activist for the feminist movement, and Georgism, which reflected her father's political beliefs when she was young.

The ad Lizzie Magie published became the talk of the town.

Lizzie Magie made a name for herself as an out-spoken and proud feminist.

Lizzie Magie first made her game, known as The Landlord's Game, popular among friends while living in Brentwood, Maryland.

In 1903, Lizzie Magie applied to the US Patent Office for a patent on her board game.

Lizzie Magie was granted US Patent 748,626 on January 5,1904.

Lizzie Magie received her patent before women were legally allowed to vote.

Lizzie Magie developed other games including Bargain Day and King's Men in 1937 and a third version of The Landlord's Game in 1939.

Lizzie Magie was buried with her husband Albert Wallace Phillips, who had died in 1937, in Columbia Gardens Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

Lizzie Magie's game was becoming increasingly popular around the Northeastern United States.

Lizzie Magie later spoke out against them and reported that she had made a mere $500 from her invention and received none of the credit for Monopoly.

In January 1936, an interview with Lizzie Magie appeared in a Washington, DC newspaper, in which she was critical of Parker Brothers.

Lizzie Magie spoke to reporters about the similarities between Monopoly and The Landlord's Game.

The article published spoke to the fact that Lizzie Magie spent more money making her game than she received in earnings, especially with the lack of credit she received after Monopoly was created.

Lizzie Magie contributed to pressure for women's and black people's rights, through educating others about these concepts, inventing board games at a time when women held less than one percent of US patents, and publishing political material in newspapers to speak out against the oppression of women and black communities in the United States.