What’s a nine-letter word for “100 years of frustration?”
A century ago this week, on Dec. 21, 1913, the first crossword appeared, becoming a daily habit for tens of millions of Americans.
Arthur Wynne, the Liverpool-born editor of the “Fun” section of Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World newspaper, invented the puzzle for that year’s holiday edition.
It appeared as a diamond-shaped grid, with the letters “F,” “U” and “N” inserted in the top three boxes. Wynne instructed readers to jot answers in capital letters into the blanks.
No one seemed more surprised than he was by the bags of fan mail the “word cross” generated.
All too predictably, though, he missed out on the copyright — his bosses laughed off his request for what appeared to be a typesetter’s nightmare, at best a passing fad.
It took 10 years before Arthur’s able assistant, Margaret Farrar, née Petherbridge, transformed the World feature into an international superstar.
By the time I met her in 1977, Margaret had become the grande dame of crosswords. A well-heeled Upper East Sider, she applied the academic skills she acquired at Smith to polish the crossword to a high sheen. Her efforts paid off handsomely in 1924, when the fledgling publishing house that would become Simon & Schuster hired her to compile a collection of crosswords, which she accomplished with two colleagues.
Singer Carly’s dad was the Simon who signed her up. An instant best-seller, it launched the series that continues to this day and created a sensation abroad, where it was embraced by the Brits and then the world.
Farrar came to the rescue again in 1942 when The New York Times relented to the demands of countless readers, including its publisher, Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger, to include a crossword in its Sunday magazine section. The popular daily feature followed in 1950, edited by Margaret until Times management politely informed her of the mandatory retirement policy at age 70. Fortunately, the Los Angeles Times had no such policy, and she happily continued editing crosswords for it as well as the S&S series for many more years.
At 100, the crossword shows no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, it has adapted to the thriving games culture on the Internet. Farrar thought that the crossword provided escape, a welcome distraction from worries. My own love affair with the square, which includes years at the helm of companies that produce puzzle magazines, leads me back to Arthur’s key word — F-U-N. Medical experts like Dr. Oz tout puzzles as a way to pump mental muscle and sharpen memory. From my perch, I’d say it serves as a fountain of youth by making play acceptable for grownups.
So, how well has Wynne’s creation weathered the test of time? Here’s the original 100-year-old puzzle — see if you can solve it.
Michelle Arnot is the author of “Four-Letter Words: Secrets of a Crossword Insider” and “What’s Gnu: A History of the Crossword Puzzle.”