Who invented crossword puzzles

For decades, the Times remained the only major metropolitan newspaper in America without a puzzle. On Feb. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, the Times caved.

Suddenly, the puzzle was not a frivolous distraction but a necessary diversion, something to keep readers sane with the rest of the news so bleak. And, as an editor pointed out in a note to publisher Arthur Hay Sulzberger, the crossword would provide readers something to occupy time during coming blackout days. So Sulzberger decided to institute a puzzle.

But, he reasoned, if the Times was going to have a crossword, it was going to be the best crossword in the nation. Farrar, who started her career as crossword editor at the New York World, insisted on the highest-quality puzzles possible. While other publications might allow for wild-looking grids and play fast and loose in terms of clues, Farrar instituted regulations that have now become industry standards.

Most of these were architectural — grids cannot contain unchecked squares, for example, and grids must have rotational symmetry. Two weeks after the U. To bolster his suggestion, the editor attached a letter from the crossword pioneer Margaret Petherbridge Farrar. The first New York Times crossword ran on Sunday, February 15, , with Farrar as editor, and became a daily feature on September 11, The crossword world exploded in when the documentary Wordplay was released.

Soon solving crosswords was a cool thing for young people to do, much as they are embracing other old pastimes like knitting. I like to think it was the humor and wordplay in crossword clues. My favorite clue? Nothing has had a bigger impact on the way we solve crosswords—or make them—than the internet. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.

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