Puzzling how
fanatical puzzlers used to be
by
Howard
Richler
What
activity do the descriptions “epidemic obsession” and “veritable
menace” suggest to you? These characterizations appeared
respectively in the Canadian Forun
and the London Times
in 1924 to describe a mania that was sweeping North America.
A
little hint – the word starts with C. If you guessed “Charleston”
or “cocaine” you'd be wrong. The answer is “crossword.”
No, I
do not jest; crossword puzzlers are nowadays a staid, orderly group
but their past in much more frenetic. The November 1924 edition of
the Canadian Forum
featured an article entitled “The Psychology of the Crossword
Puzzle” in which the author asks psychologists tp explain the
regressive tendencies found in crossword puzzlers: “Psychology
should..attempt some explanation of what may be regarded as the
epidemic obsession of the crossword puzzle.” Later on this writer
reveals that his plea for an explanation is rhetorical: “It is
obvious from the similarity of the crossword puzzle to the child's
letter blocks that it is primarily the unconscious which is
expressing itself in the crossword puzzle obsession.”
A
legacy of this crossword madness could be found in the New York
Public Library thirteen years later. Then, a prohibitive sign
commanded in glaring block letters. THE USE OF LIBRARY BOOKS IN
CONNECTION WITH CONTESTS AND PUZZLES IS PROHIBITED.
What sinister force led to the need for such a draconian
sign being posted in 1937? In order to answer that question, let us
go back to the genesis of the crossword puzzle exactly a century ago.
The
inaugural “word-cross” puzzle appeared in the
New York World
on December 21, 1913. Its creator was Arthur Wynne, the Fun Page
editor. What Wynne developed was actually an adaptation of a puzzle
that first surfaced more than two millennia ago. The puzzle was
called a word square and its distinguishing mark was that the same
words read both across and down. Creating word squares became popular
in 19th
century England. Here's an example:
CIRCLE
ICARUS
RAREST
CREATE
LUSTRE
ESTEEM
It occurred to Wynne that the horizontal words didn't
have to be the same as the vertical ones and he arranged his puzzle
in a diamond-shaped grid and inserted numbers in some of the squares.
The puzzler was given clues that indicated the start and position of
each word. Before long crossword mania had swept the continent.
In
Creative
Cruciverbalists,
author Helene Hovanec itemizes some of the compulsive behaviour of
puzzlers in the 1920s:
“Welz
Nathan was fined $5 and remanded to jail for an evening for
obstructing traffic in a restaurant. He and three friends were so
involved in solving a crossword puzzle that they refused to leave
when the owner tried to close the establishment. Nathan opted to
finish the puzzle in a four-letter place of confinement.”
“Mrs.
Maria Zaba of Chicago complaining that she was a 'crossword' widow,
sued her husband for non-support. Mr. Zaba was so engrossed in
solving crosswords that he didn't have time to work. Judge Sabath
ordered Zaba to limit himself to three puzzles a day and devote the
rest of his time to domestic duties.”
“Theodore
Koerner of Brooklyn asked his wife for help in solving a crossword.
She begged off, claiming exhaustion. Koerner shot her (superficially)
and then shot himself (fatally).”
By the 1920s, crossword parties were all the rage.
Social intercourse all but evaporated as fanatical puzzlers
endeavoured to complete puzzles before their deranged peers.
In the early 1930s, newspapers exploited puzzle contests
in an attempt to increase their readership. To solve some puzzles,
readers frequented libraries to search out arcane words secreted
away on spider-webbed bookshelves.
Long lines of neurotic puzzlers formed in previously
deserted libraries all searching for the Holy Grail, the word that
would unlock the puzzle's mystery and earn them glory. To gain an
advantage over other cutthroat competitors, some ruthless
afficianados stole or desecrated some of the rare reference books.
By 1937, officials at the New York Public Library were
forced to take action against the puzzling hordes. A library user
naive enough to admit to being a dreaded puzzler was presented with
this stern note: “Dictionaries, encyclopedias and other works of
reference are not provided for use in connection with puzzles or
contests of any kind.”
So reader beware. Remember in this centenary year of the
invention of the crossword puzzle: lurking in the depths of the next
passive puzzler you spot lies a wordstruck maniac just waiting to
break out.
Howard's
book From
Happy to Homosexual and other mysterious semantic shifts
will be published in March by Ronsdale Press of Vancouver. Also his
puzzle book Anagram Triplets is available on your IPhone on Puzzazz.
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