First Modern Crossword Puzzle, 1913

First Modern Crossword Puzzle, 1913

Arthur Wynne (June 22, 1871 - January 14, 1945) was the British-born inventor of the modern crossword puzzle. He emigrated to the United States on June 6, 1891, at the age of 19. He worked on the Pittsburgh Press newspaper, and played the violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He later moved to New York City and worked on the New York World newspaper. While there he created the crossword puzzle for the Fun section of the Sunday edition (December 21, 1913). The puzzle had a diamond shape with a hollow centre, and the letters F-U-N already being filled in. He called it a Word-Cross Puzzle. He introduced a number of innovations and pioneered the use of black squares in a symmetrical arrangement to separate words in rows and columns. A few weeks after the first Word-Cross appeared, the name of the puzzle was changed to Cross-Word as a result of a typesetting error. He became a naturalized US citizen in the 1920s, and died in 1945 at

Album / Science Source / New York Public Library

Model: No - Property: No
Rights questions?

2550 x 5246 px | 38.3 MB

21.6 x 44.4 cm | 8.5 x 17.5 in (300 dpi)