a basic small history...

In my quest to discover this hidden world of crossword puzzles I figured that doing a google search is the best starting point. I've done a search for "history of crossword puzzles" which pulls up a number of links to puzzle sites, as well as the typical wikipedia, about.com, and ehow results. Even better, Google pulls up a timeline for crossword puzzles, which starts at 1913. It seems that during the 19th century there existed word puzzles that were sort of prototypes to the modern crossword puzzles, but for the most part it is a 20th century pastime. The first crossword puzzle is attributed to journalist and Liverpudlian, Arthur Wynne, published New York World on December 21, 1913. According to Wikipedia the World made the puzzles a regular feature in the paper. Within the next decade crossword puzzles had apparently become a real hit and other papers began featuring them regularly. The first crossword puzzle book was published by Simon and Schuster in 1924. It appears from reading the Wikipedia entry on crossword puzzles that they were seen as a fad, with many considering them a waste of time and expecting them to die out rather soon. In 1930, "crossword" first appears in the dictionary, and it isn't until 1942 that the first crossword puzzle appears in the New York Times, which is now home to the most prestigious crossword puzzles in the USA. Wikipedia cites 1968 as the year that the British cryptic crossword puzzle is introduced to the US. Today there are numerous types of crossword puzzles with varying levels of complexity and each country has their own unique style, which I expect I will look at time the coming entries.