Metta Victoria Fuller Victor (née Fuller; March 2, 1831 – June 26, 1885), who used the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Seeley Regester among others, was an American novelist, credited with authoring of one of the first detective novels in the United States. She wrote more than 100
dime novels, pioneering the field.
Life
She was born in
Erie, Pennsylvania, the third of five children of Adonijah Fuller and Lucy (Williams) Fuller.
The family moved to
Wooster, Ohio in 1839, where she and her elder sister
Frances (who also became a famous writer) attended a female seminary; they both published stories in local newspapers and, later, in the ''
Home Journal
''Town & Country'', formerly the ''Home Journal'' and ''The National Press'', is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.
History
Early history
The magazine w ...
''. The sisters moved to
New York City together in 1848, where they continued their literary pursuits.
Metta married editor and publishing pioneer
Orville James Victor
Orville James Victor (October 23, 1827 – March 14, 1910) was an American writer and editor in chief.
Biography
Victor was born in Sandusky, Ohio to Henry Clay Victor and Gertrude Nash Victor, and had seven siblings; his father operated a h ...
in 1856. Her sister Frances would later marry Victor's brother. Metta served as editor for the Beadle & Company monthly ''Home'' and for ''
Cosmopolitan Art Journal
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
'', and later anonymously published dime novels for her husband's series for Beadle.
She died of cancer on June 26, 1885, in
Ho-ho-kus, New Jersey
Ho-Ho-Kus () is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,258, an increase of 180 (+4.4%) from the 2010 census count of 4,078, which in turn reflected an increas ...
, and was buried in Ridgewood's Valleau Cemetery.
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Works
Her noteworthy works are ''Alice Wilde'' (1860), an early dime novel; ''Maum Guinea, and Her Plantation "Children"'' (1861), expressing abolitionist sentiments; ''The Dead Letter'' (1866), the first full-length American work of crime fiction;[ ''The Figure Eight'' (1869); ''A Bad Boy's Diary'' (1880); and ''The Blunders of a Bashful Man'' (1881).
She also wrote under the names Corinne Cushman, Eleanor Lee Edwards, Metta Fuller, Walter T. Gray, Mrs. Orrin James, Rose Kennedy, Louis LeGrand, Mrs. Mark Peabody, The Singing Sybil, Mrs. Henry Thomas.]
References
External links
*Foxwell, Elizabeth
"Metta Fuller Victor: A Sensational Life"
''Mystery Scene,'' no. 81 (2003).
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* Miranda Orso, Summer 2002
Bio from American Women's Dime Novel Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Victor, Metta Victoria Fuller
1831 births
1885 deaths
19th-century American novelists
American crime fiction writers
American women novelists
Pulp fiction writers
Novelists from New York (state)
19th-century American women writers
Women crime fiction writers
People from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey
Dime novelists
19th-century pseudonymous writers
Pseudonymous women writers