When was the first crossword published

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.

As online gaming became popular, puzzle makers realized solvers could get their daily fix on their computers and, eventually, their hand-held devices. Whether solvers prefer putting pencil or pen! Download a printable crossword based on the December issue of Smithsonian here. Deb Amlen will speak at a Smithsonian Associates event on March 5, 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. But she also made sure that puzzles passed the Sunday Breakfast Test; that is, clues and answers would be appropriate for all ages.

In England, the crossword contained more serious threats to civilization than potential lack of civility. Most suspiciously of all, British intelligence officials traced the suspect puzzles to a single source. They were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals. In the United States, however, the puzzle developed into a serious adult pastime.

The first known published crossword puzzle was created by a journalist named Arthur Wynne from Liverpool, and he is usually credited as the inventor of the popular word game. December 21, was the date and it appeared in a Sunday newspaper, the New York World. Wynne's puzzle see below differed from today's crosswords in that it was diamond shaped and contained no internal black squares.

During the early 's other newspapers picked up the newly discovered pastime and within a decade crossword puzzles were featured in almost all American newspapers. It was in this period crosswords began to assume their familiar form.

Ten years after its rebirth in the States it crossed the Atlantic and re-conquered Europe. The first appearance of a crossword in a British publication was in Pearson's Magazine in February , and the first Times crossword appeared on February 1 British puzzles quickly developed their own style, being considerably more difficult than the American variety.

In particular the cryptic crossword became established and rapidly gained popularity. The generally considered governing rules for cryptic puzzles were laid down by A. Ritchie and D. These people, gifted with the ability to see words puzzled together in given geometrical patterns and capable of twisting and turning words into word plays dancing on the wit of human minds, have since constructed millions of puzzles by hand and each of these puzzlers has developed personal styles known and loved by his fans.

These people have set the standard of what to expect from a quality crossword puzzle.