The Crossword Puzzle Fad, It's Time!

I have been trying to get into crossword puzzles for years. Betty White admitted to being "avidly addicted to them". With her passing, and vicarious encouragement, I'm going to give them a try. Excitedly, my bibliophile buddy Bill gifted me this 97 year old collection of unique puzzles! What a way to begin.

When The Celebrities Cross Word Puzzle Book was published, in 1925, the phenomenon was only 12 years old. Journalist Arthur Wynne had wanted to devise a new game for the back of the New York World newspaper back in 1913, so he created a diamond grid and called it a “Word-Cross,” and thus the first crossword puzzle was born. Smithsonian Magazine has a great article about its history here.

The book's contributors are incredibly diverse, with some being complete unknowns to me (e.g. Pola Negri). The talent varies from Irving Berlin to Harry Houdini to Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker to Efrem Zimbalist (violinist and father to his famous actor son, Jr).

The illustrations and configurations were like nothing I have ever seen.


"[In 1925]Ten million men and women, according to conservative estimates, are daily devotees of the tantalizing black-and-white word-squares in the United States alone. More than that, the pastime is making gigantic horizontal-and-vertical strides across other continents: England and France are now beginning to wonder about a five-letter word meaning "albumen of the castor-oil bean." The Briggs cartoon (above) is no exaggeration-the world is literally a madly-revolving spherical cross word puzzle."

"When we published the first Cross Word Puzzle Book on April 10th, 1924, we bravely announced that this pastime was destined to supplant Coué, Mah Jong, and Bananas. If we denied that it was tremendously exciting and pleasurable to watch this slogan become a fact within a few months, we would simply be denying the plain truth. If we denied, more over, that it was increasingly exhilarating to watch our original Cross Word Puzzle Books jump from the fad class to best-sellerdom, and from best-sellerdom to a universally recognized and somewhat devastating institution, candor would no longer be one of our attributes." -Simon and Schuster
I delighted in the advertisements in the back of the book. I expected a dictionary ad.
The Venus pencil was interesting because of the coupon for "a free sample". All books did come with some kind of pencil. Maybe this writing tool, whose motto was, "As soft as you wish; as hard as you please: but always smoother than you had dreamed", was just better. They were a brand name of pencils made by the American Lead Pencil Company, beginning in 1905. The production of Venus pencils gave the company an early start in the manufacture of high-quality pencils marketed to artists and architects. They became even more popular after the First World War, which had interrupted the supply of pencils from German companies.
Okay, how cool is this Cross Word Puzzle jewelry?
And the prices? I am going to have to keep an eye out for these beauties!
Four out of every five are victims.
"In addition to being a deluxe volume-a sort of super-Cross Word Puzzle Book-this series consists of puzzles that are excellent in every way. The designs are a delight to behold, the definitions are precise and fair, the interlocks and clusters are intriguing and workman-like. You will find some easy puzzles, some moderate ones, and some veritable terrors." I can't wait. My pencils are sharpened.

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