How Arthur Wynne's puzzle sparked a century-long crossword craze

One 100 years agone this week the Sunday Express published the archetypal crossword successful a British newspaper. Since then, wide cognition and cryptic versions person go a regular ritual for millions, exercising mind, representation and logic.

The deed composer Stephen Sondheim said: “The bully happening astir doing a crossword is you cognize determination is simply a solution.”

But they were a agelong clip coming. The fascination with connection patterns goes backmost to the past empires of Rome, Greece, Egypt and Syria, with examples of connection squares scratched connected to the walls of villas and barracks.

During the maturation of the leisured classes successful the 19th century, puzzles incorporating words successful intricate designs became popular.

But it took a Liverpudlian to travel up with the archetypal modern crossword.

Arthur Wynne, the lad of the exertion of the section Liverpool Mercury, had emigrated to America aged 19 and by 1913 was editing a play puzzle leafage for the comic conception of the New York World.

For the Christmas edition, Wynne wanted thing caller and from his New Jersey location created a diamond-shaped grid built astir a cardinal model of 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines of 7 squares.

Words ran either horizontally oregon vertically, and the scholar had to “fill successful the tiny squares which hold to the pursuing definitions” successful what Wynne called a Word-Cross Puzzle.

The archetypal and past squares of each connection were numbered arsenic was the hint to which the reply related. To kicks things off, Wynne filled the apical horizontal with “Fun”.

The puzzle proved fashionable and was printed weekly. A typographical mistake transposed its rubric to cross-word and that stuck.

Wynne besides experimented with the signifier of the grid earlier settling connected the present acquainted rectangle with shaded squares utilized to abstracted the words oregon phrases.

Crossword mania swept America successful the aboriginal 1920s, giving commuters connected the caller Metro lines thing to inhabit their minds.

New York Public Library complained that “puzzle fans swarm to the dictionaries and encyclopaedias truthful arsenic to thrust distant readers and students who request these books successful their regular work”.

The New York Times deed retired astatine the “sinful discarded successful the utterly futile uncovering of words the letters of which volition acceptable into a prearranged pattern, much oregon little complex. This is not a crippled astatine all, and it hardly tin beryllium called a athletics ... Solvers get thing retired of it but a primitive signifier of intelligence exercise, and occurrence oregon nonaccomplishment successful immoderate fixed effort is arsenic irrelevant to intelligence development.”

It added: “Fortunately, the question of whether the puzzles are beneficial oregon harmful is successful nary urgent request of an answer. The craze evidently is dying retired accelerated and successful a fewer months it volition beryllium forgotten.”

A clergyman called them “the people of a childish mentality” and said, “there is nary usage for persons to unreal that moving 1 of the puzzles carries immoderate intelligence worth with it.” Such disapproval was ignored.

The US improvement was initially disdained successful Britain. The Times paper ran an editorial headlined ‘An Enslaved Nation’.

But contempt specified scorn, Britain’s speechmaking nationalist demanded thing similar. And successful 1922 Pearson’s Magazine published the archetypal crossword this broadside of the Atlantic. The Sunday Express became the archetypal British paper to people 1 connected November 2, 1924, adapting a Wynne puzzle for UK readers and cutting retired American slang. Ten prizes of £1 1s were up for grabs for the archetypal 10 close postal solutions opened by the paper.

Others newspapers followed and successful February 1930, adjacent The Times deigned to people one.

The archetypal cryptic crossword was successful the Daily Telegraph successful July 1925, and by the 1930s clues were overmuch much sophisticated, containing afloat oregon partial anagrams, treble meanings and themes.

Some cryptologists hired arsenic codebreakers successful the wartime Bletchley Park were selected aft doing good successful a nationalist crossword-solving competition.

In May 1944, an Observer crossword compiled by headmaster Leonard Dawe contained words associated with the D-Day preparations, specified arsenic Omaha, Utah, Neptune and Overlord. Intelligence officers recovered thing linking Dawe to Germany. The enigma was enactment down to coincidence.

Forty years aboriginal it emerged that a radical of pupils who helped Dawe to compile his puzzles brought backmost gossip they had picked up from adjacent barracks. Dawe was mortified.

Meanwhile, Wynne died successful Florida successful 1945 aged 71. By past crosswords were a diagnostic successful virtually each paper crossed the Western world.

Strangely, it was not until 1968 that a cryptic crossword made its mode to America. Thanks to the efforts of US composer Stephen Sondheim, a instrumentality of British crosswords, 1 was archetypal published successful the New Yorker magazine. But Americans ne'er embraced cryptics arsenic overmuch arsenic the British.

The Guinness Book of Records lists Roger Squires of Ironbridge, Shropshire, arsenic the astir prolific crossword compiler – successful May, 2007 helium published his 66,666th crossword, equivalent to implicit 2 cardinal clues.

Some of the champion Cryptic Clues:

London angiosperm (6 letters) – Thames

Bar of soap (6.6 letters) – Rovers Return

Gegs (9, 4 letters) – Scrambled eggs

014 (6,5 letters) – Double agent

(8 letters) - Clueless