Tantalizingly brief entry in Wikipedia
Margaret Farrar, neé Petherbridge.
Originally hired as a secretary “(people seemed to believe that female talent could be squandered in those days)”
— short bio from (another interesting find) Exploring the Arts Foundation.
Her legacy at Amazon, “the longest-running continuous book series of any kind by any author.”
Thanks to Patrick Berry, who is featured here. (Spoiler alert: it discusses the construction of—thus solution to—a series of puzzles.)