Monopoly’s Great Depression origin story, Anspach told Pilon, was “all a lie. It was invented by a woman.” That conversation led to an article that led to Pilon’s book, which was first published in 2015. The facts were always out there, Pilon says, they just needed someone to go looking for them. “Lizzie Magie wasn’t famous by any stretch, but it was amazing to me that there was documentation to tell her story. She wrote articles, she published things.”

When Parker Brothers started selling the Monopoly board game, promoting Darrow as the inventor, Magie fought back. “[She] lashes out. She does press interviews and there are images of her holding up her game and her patents,” Pilon says. By this point, Magie was “an older woman working as a secretary. And she’s like, ‘This is my game. Here’s my evidence.’”

Despite this, Parker Brothers bought the patent to the Landlord’s Game, along with two other game ideas, for a reported $500. Magie received no royalties, and Hasbro does not credit her as the game’s inventor to this day. It’s infuriating. But thanks to Pilon’s book – and her work in the almost decade since it was first published – Magie’s story is becoming more widely known. “History is full of Lizzie Magies. It’s full of people who get written out of origin stories,” says Pilon. “Historically, they’re often women and people of colour.”

“It’s all a lie”: the surprising feminist history (and secret drama) of your favourite board game