As we've discussed in these pages, crossword puzzles had been around for a decade or so by the time The Cross Word Puzzle Book was published and the hobby snowballed into a craze in 1924. The format already had fans — and indeed, some of the earliest reviews seemed
On this day 100 years ago, the First National Cross Word Puzzle Convention took place in the Ambassador Hotel in New York City. We've already covered the announcement earlier in the month and some chatter leading up to it, but now the date is upon us. Admission was
In the month since The Cross Word Puzzle Book was published, it had become a phenomenon. A larger version of the fad-focused ad that had run in newspapers appeared in Publisher's Weekly on May 10, 1924, now with a timeline of the first three days of orders and
The Cross Word Puzzle Book was an instant success for a variety of reasons. For one thing, crossword puzzles had become a fad — in an era where fads themselves were enjoying a moment — but they had to that point been dripped out in weekly publications. The book was released into
The New York World humor columnist Franklin P. Adams, who typically went by FPA, played a pivotal role in getting “The Cross Word Puzzle Book” made, and printed a couplet to celebrate its release. (There's more detail in our post marking the book’s publication.) His syndicated column,