Michelle Arnot

A solid history of the crossword puzzle -- and some variant forms. Arnot traces the antecedent puzzles like word squares and rebuses before delving into the beginnings of the crossword puzzle. She includes many "mini-stories" of solvers who begged for harder (or, sometimes, easier) puzzles, of psychiatrists who thought crosswords to be potentially dangerous, and of many constructors. Most of the book, though, tracks the tenure of the editors of the New York Times puzzles, and how that show more newspaper generally set the standard for most American-style puzzles. There are a few chapters about British-style cryptic crosswords and on crossword-puzzle variants like acrostics. Some thirty puzzles are included as examples (with answers!). show less

This is primarily all about the four-letter words that crossword enthusiasts need to know, but has a few other interesting tidbits too. I found myself scanning over most of the four-letter word parts - I've done plenty of crosswords and know the words. The history of the crossword and cryptic crossword were interesting, but most of this book was nothing new to me.