Tuesday 6 September 2016

Cross Words - oops, I mean crosswords

The first crossword appeared on December 21st 1913 in Joseph Pulitzer’s paper, the New York World.  It was composed by Liverpool-born Arthur Wynne (1871-1945).  He introduced a diamond-shaped puzzle with a hollow centre and called it the Word-Cross Puzzle.  

Although it was based on earlier puzzle forms, Wynne became the first to introduce horizontal and vertical lines for solvers to enter letters and the use of black squares to separate words in rows and columns.  A few weeks after the first puzzle appeared the name was changed to Crossword – allegedly as a result of a typesetting error.  
So here is to Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne who has made many mornings more fun for Partner-who-loves-tea, GB and me.

8 comments:

  1. I had no idea crosswords were such a late invention! Although I suppose going back further, perhaps spelling was still too haphazard (oops, one those words that always makes me hesitate)...

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's what i've heard, too, that the name was changed in error. It doesn't matter, i still enjoy puzzling over them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The New York Times crossword puzzle, along with a cup of coffee, begins every single day for me and has for more years than I care to count. Thank you Arthur Wynne.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am mediocre in them even though I love words because sometimes I think they cheat with a trick. But I still do them once in a while. Nice history.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey, your column will enable me to finish the Sunday crossword...this was one of their clues! Thanks, John. xoxoxo Carol/Canadian Chickadee

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love crosswords so long as they are not cryptic. Mastering the latter is on my bucket list though. Doing a crossword with one's morning coffee and sharing that is one of the simple joys in life.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for this interesting post! I didn't know crossword puzzles were only introduced in 1913; I somehow thought they would have been around much longer.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love crossword puzzles no matter how they originated.

    ReplyDelete

Hello - thanks for dropping by to leave a comment. Your comments are much appreciated even if I don't always reply. They will appear as soon as they have been moderated.

Blog Archive