page_title: William Moulton Marston
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: William Moulton Marston / Biography / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: Original contemporary caption: This shows Dr. William M. Marston testing his "lie detector" on E. E. Duddington, founder and president of the "Prisoners' Relief society." Duddington served a five years' sentence for involuntary manslaughter and he hopes Doctor Marston's "detector" will vindicate the story he told at his trial.
context_page_description: William Moulton Marston, also known by the pen name Charles Moulton, was an American psychologist who, with his wife Elizabeth Holloway, invented an early prototype of the lie detector. He was also known as a self-help author and comic book writer who created the character Wonder Woman.
  Two women, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and their polyamorous life partner, Olive Byrne, greatly influenced Wonder Woman's creation.
  He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
context_section_description: Marston was born in the Cliftondale section of Saugus, Massachusetts, the son of Annie Dalton (née Moulton) and Frederick William Marston. Marston was educated at Harvard University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and receiving his B.A. in 1915, an LL.B. in 1918, and a PhD in Psychology in 1921. While a student at Harvard, Marston sold his first script, The Thief, to filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché, who directed the film in 1913. After teaching at American University in Washington, D.C., and Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, Marston traveled to Universal Studios in California in 1929, where he spent a year as Director of Public Services and taught at the University of Southern California.
  Marston had two children each with both his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and partner Olive Byrne. Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Pete, and a daughter, Olive Ann. Olive Byrne gave birth to two sons. Elizabeth supported the family financially while Olive Byrne stayed home to take care of all four children. Marjorie Wilkes Huntley was a third woman who occasionally lived with them, and who would go on to become office executive under H. G. Peter.
caption: William Marston (right) in 1922, testing his lie detector invention
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