Concise, cryptic, compelling – the ongoing appeal of crosswords

ILLUSTRATIONS: SILVIA STECHER

For a long time crosswords have had an image problem. The neat monochrome grid, mostly tucked away at the back of a newspaper, is associated with retirees with endless time on their hands or brainy types looking for a quick mental workout (not that the two groups can’t overlap, of course). But its strongest critics have been there from the outset. In her recently published book Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can’t Live Without Them, Adrienne Raphel explains how for years several senior editors at The New York Times wrote off crosswords as ‘a primitive sort of mental exercise’ and a ‘sinful waste’ of time.

Today the same newspaper insists its puzzle section is ‘the epicenter of American crossword culture’, counting devotees such as businesswoman Martha Stewart, former president Bill Clinton and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. At its helm is none other than Will Shortz, reigning crossword monarch and host of the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, ensuring the paper’s puzzles have expertise and gravitas.

What prompted The New York Times to make its U-turn? It didn’t come until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, decades after the first-ever crossword appeared in a Sunday newspaper – the New York World, created by British journalist Arthur Wynne. In December 1941, Sunday editor of The New York Times Lester Markel sent a memo to the paper’s publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, saying: ‘We ought to proceed with the puzzle, especially in view of the fact it is possible there will now be bleak blackout hours – or, if not that, then certainly a need for relaxation of some kind or other.’