and Maryland area in the early 1880s, she worked as a stenographer and typist at the Dead Letter Office. 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. Magie was born in Macomb, Illinois, in 1866 to Mary Jane (née Ritchie) Magie and James K. She invented The Landlord's Game, the precursor to Monopoly, to illustrate teachings of the progressive era economist Henry George. Magie Phillips ( née Magie – March 2, 1948) was an American game designer, writer, feminist, and Georgist.
