Wynne tapped his pencil absentmindedly as he
thought about the word puzzles popular in his day.
Acrostics, in which the first letter of each line of a verse
spelled a word or phrase when read downward, and word
squares, in which a square grid of letters formed the same
words horizontally and vertically, were puzzles from ancient times. How could
he make word games new for the twentieth-century reader?
In the late hours of that day, with the deadline drawing near, Wynne got
an idea. Why not combine those two old games into a “Word-cross”?
The new feature, soon called a crossword, was an instant success. Wynne was
surprised the following week when he even began receiving cross-
words from World readers who had created their own puzzles.
For more than ten years, the World was the only news-
paper to publish crosswords. Then, in April 1924, Margaret
Petherbridge, who had been hired by the newspaper to make
sure the puzzles were free from typographical errors, put
together the first book of crossword puzzles. The book sold for
$1.35 and had a string attached. On the string was a sharp-
ened pencil, added as an advertising tool by the Venus Pencil
Company.
Bookstores were doubtful that a whole book of puzzles could
be popular and at first only stocked a few copies. Instead, the
puzzle book became a phenomenal bestseller, launching the new
publisherSimonandSchuster.ARTHUR WYNNE SAT in his office at the New
York World newspaper, deep in thought. It was Saturday,
December 20, 1913. Christmas was just days away, and
he wanted something special for the magazine section of
Sunday’s paper. He had made use of word games before,
but he wanted this to be different.A KIND WORD ABO UT
BY ESTHER TITUS
IllustratedbyAdamLarkum
text© 2019 byEstherTitus,art© 2019 byAdamLarkumC R O S S W O R D S
I KINDA THOUGHT UGLY
INVENTED CROSSWORD
PUZZLES.NOPE! THOUGH
HIS SPELLING IS
INVENTIVE...
18