Passage I

From Word-Cross to a Crossword Craze

In the early 1900s, the "Fun" section of theNew York World a Sunday supplement that presented puzzles to entertain the newspaper’s readers. One day, in 1913 the section’s editor Arthur Wynne, was asked by his superior to create a new puzzle. Inspired by a game called “Magic Squares” from his childhood, Wynne drew up a variation that used a diamond-shaped grid with numbered squares in rows and columns. The puzzle was to be filled in with the answers to clues that corresponded to the numbered squares. He named his new creation a “word-cross.”

After the puzzle’s debut in December. Requests from readers came pouring in for more word-crosses. Some readers even submitted puzzles of their own. Wynne began including a word-cross in his section every week. Usually one he wrote himself but sometimes a reader’s submission. Eventually the puzzles became known as “crosswords.”

By 1915, reader submissions arrived in such great numbers that, Martha Petherbridge, Wynne’s secretary, began assisting Wynne in managing and editing the puzzles. Crossword devotees would complain if there was even a small formatting flaw or factual error in the puzzles, so Petherbridge checked carefully for typographical and content errors prior to printing. She also established firm rules for crossword layouts, including the introduction of square-shaped grids.

By the 1920s, the craze for crosswords went far beyond theWorld’s “Fun” supplement. Songwriters released tunes with crossword-related lyrics. Fashionable women wore crossword-decorated dresses. In line, fans of crosswords in crowds waited at the New York Public Library to use dictionaries to search for puzzle answers. And a fledgling publishing company became an immediate success when in 1924 it released a smash hit: the first book-length collection of crossword puzzles. Though the 1920s was the time and age when crosswords were at the peak of the public’s obsession with crosswords, the puzzles and their cryptic clues continue to captivate audiences.