1922: The Year In Crosswords (3 of 3)

Maybe don't call your volunteers' submissions "freakish"? Just a thought.

The colorful personalities of Petherbridge and F.P.A. were very visible in the World and its syndicators, leaving rich historical data to explore. Other crossword features appeared in 1922, but far less can be said about them with any certainty.

“Jerry King’s Crossword Feature” continued in The Pittsburg Press and other venues. The Buffalo Courier Express even ran both the King puzzle and the World puzzle for a while, running the former alongside Sam Lloyd’s Brain Tests.

“Jerry King” took some halting half-steps in the direction of its rival. In 1921, it had only credited one outside contributor; in 1922, it credited seven. And like the World, it included notes for would-be contributors, though their tone wasn’t exactly as warm as Petherbridge’s:

We regret we have been unable to use some contributed puzzles, owing to the use in them of many obsolete and foreign words. Others were made into freakish or irregular designs. We suggest that designs be made symmetrical and that words be in good usuage [sic] historical or geographical.

“Freakish” designs (SMH) were, presumably, anything not square-shaped, symmetrical, and about 15-17 squares long and tall. Petherbridge was publishing grids like that, but also plenty of stuff like this...

At the very end of the year, “Jerry King” seemed to attempt a more Petherbridgean tone. “W.C. Crocker of Lisbon, N.D., finds time from his business duties to solve our crossword puzzles. Having worked out many puzzles, he thought he would try his own composition, and today’s example is the result.”

(Do…do you think it’s good, though, “Jerry”?)

Crosswords crossed the Atlantic that year too, in a manner of speaking. The editor of Pearson’s wrote in the February issue:

Here is a new form of puzzle in the shape of a Word Square that will provide you with a very pleasant hour’s entertainment… If you like this sort of thing, I shall be pleased to give you one every month, but in that case you must write and tell me… These new word squares are having a tremendous vogue in America just now.

The puzzle was straightforward, with none of the quirks that the British style of puzzle would later develop.

The Boston Globe continued to offer puzzles not seen in the World or “Jerry King” that same month, but incomplete newspaper records mean we can’t be certain if these puzzles were Globe originals or reprints from earlier years. It would do at least one such reprint in 1923. Unlike its rivals, though, it then offered little commentary about individual puzzle installments.

The Globe did, however, feature this remarkable targeted ad for the then-new edition of Webster’s Dictionary.

…And this cartoon-focused letter to the editor.

Nor was this the only colorful (albeit black-and-white) illustration of solver’s dilemmas that year. Fontaine Fox and Clare Briggs both found some inspiration in them.

“HOT DOG! Here ’tis!”

From cartoonists to commentators to “cranks,” everyone seemed to agree: the crossword’s grip on the public consciousness was getting stronger, and it wouldn’t be relaxing anytime soon.

Everyone, that is, except The New York Times. With a haughty contempt and a whiff of jealousy of its New York-based rival, an anonymous NYT feature in December 24 was ready to pronounce the crossword so last year. “The solving of cross-word puzzles has lost its popularity among the younger set in Our Town…”

Sure it has, 1922 New York Times. Sure it has.

Next: A grid of my own!