Part 1

THE CROSS WORD PUZZLE BOOK

SECOND SERIES

A Second Anthology of Fifty New Cross Word Puzzles Selected as the Best of the Thousands Submitted to the New York World Published Here Exclusively for the First Time, and Edited

By

PROSPER BURANELLI F. GREGORY HARTSWICK MARGARET PETHERBRIDGE

Preface by

WILLIAM A. STERN II CROSS WORD PUZZLE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD

SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC. THE PLAZA PUBLISHING COMPANY New York :: 1924

FOREWORD BY THE PUBLISHERS

One Cross Word Puzzle Book leads to another.

Now that the second volume, containing a new series of fifty more Cross Word Puzzles, is available, it seems fitting to take the reader behind the scenes and give him a short history of this cross word business.

The first Cross Word Puzzle Book was published on April 10th, 1924. In New York it sprang into immediate popularity, becoming there a best seller within a fortnight. A small but ardent group of cross word puzzle devotees gave the fad a running start. Among these pioneers may be mentioned F. P. A., Montague Glass, Neysa McMein, Emily Price Post, Baird Leonard, Ruth Hale, Gelett Burgess, Robert C. Benchley, Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Kathleen and Charles G. Norris, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Carolyn Wells.

Cross word puzzling became the thing to do, the raging topic of conversation, supplanting Coué, Mah Jong, and Bananas (first a slogan—now a fact!). With this impetus, the pastime’s popularity radiated to other cities, and within a month the Cross Word Puzzle Book was ranked No. 4 on the national list of non-fiction best sellers. Three weeks later it advanced to third place, and the following month jumped into the lead, where it appears to remain indefinitely.

First a fad, then a best seller, the Cross Word Puzzle Book became an American institution, immortalized in cartoons by Briggs, prose-epics by Bob Benchley, and ballads by F. P. A.

Ordinary books are meant to be read. Here is a book in which one writes—more than that, a book in which one has the supreme satisfaction of unravelling a real mystery, tracking down clue after clue. This, no doubt, is the secret of the irresistible fascination of Cross Word Puzzling. Every one enjoys being an amateur Sherlock Holmes—and the tantalizing black-and-white word patterns provide an ideal battle-ground for one’s detective instincts.

This deep-rooted appeal explains the extraordinary popularity of the book. When we announced in one of our early advertisements that “people do not want this book—they crave it!” we had actual proof to support this statement—frenzied fans storming the publishers’ office to get extra copies in order “to keep peace in the house.”

Six weeks after the publication of the first Cross Word Puzzle Book—May 18th, to be precise—the Cross Word Puzzle Association of America was formed at a convention at the Hotel Ambassador, New York. At this congress the rules and regulations of Cross Word Puzzling were formulated. A contest for the cross word puzzle championship of the world was held, and William A. Stern II won first honors, solving a standard eleven-square formation in 10 minutes, 10 and two-fifths seconds. Mr. Stern has written a preface for this book, explaining the delights of cross word puzzling, for both novice and veteran.

Thus, in the words of Neal O’Hara, America began to gasp for words. The Cross Word Puzzle became the Great Escape from Boredom—the most powerful enemy of ennui....

Not only entertainment and thrills, but sound instruction reward the true Cross Word Puzzler. Here is the most delightful and the most effective way of building up one’s vocabulary and enriching one’s general fund of information. Dictionaries and synonym books joined the best seller list, right behind The Cross Word Puzzle Book itself, for every one, to obtain the maximum benefit and fun, must have a dictionary or a word book handy.

The pencil and eraser provided with The Cross Word Puzzle Book proved to be a most popular feature. Post cards for applying for the correct answers to the puzzles also pleased the followers of the pastime. This equipment, therefore, is retained in the Second Series. The suggestion has been made that future editions of the book be equipped with shock-absorbers and four-wheel brakes.

Thousands of puzzle enthusiasts have indicated their eagerness for this second series of cross words. This book, like the first volume, is edited and compiled by the Cross Word Puzzle Editors of the New York World, the undisputed leaders of the gentle art. Every effort has been made to safeguard the technical perfection of the puzzles. This time they are arranged in the order of their difficulty, beginning with fairly easy ones, and ranging to the most intricate formations, calculated to baffle Houdini himself. Beauty of design, accuracy of definition, complete interlock, and the minimum number of unkeyed letters—these elements have all been considered in selecting the puzzles. We are confident that they will prove as absorbing, as entertaining,—yes, as exciting,—as the first fifty.

The Publishers.

PREFACE

By William A. Stern, 2nd Cross Word Puzzle Champion of the World

Two years ago I saw a friend of mine earnestly studying a checkered diagram in the magazine section of a Sunday newspaper. Curiosity impelled me to ask him whether he had taken up cross-stitching, because the pattern he so zealously pored over resembled closely that of an old-fashioned sampler. When he explained that he was attempting to solve a puzzle I laughed, because in my ignorance I believed that puzzles were childish time-wasters. I snorted my disdain at this sort of balderdash and, angered, he challenged me to try my hand at it.

I confidently predicted that I would easily solve the foolish enigma and after he had explained the manner of solution I set to work. A few minutes later I started asking questions. What was one supposed to do? My friend explained a second time and I was all at sea. Finally I understood what to do, but was shaky on how to do it. I finished that puzzle the next day. I gave little thought to food and rest; in the end I triumphed.

Since that time I have solved many cross word puzzles but on none have I consumed as much time as on that first heart-breaker. I used to blame my slowness on the fact that the method was never properly explained, but I now believe that my friend who gave me my first cross word baptism was an adequate instructor. The chief difficulty which the uninitiate meets lies in the struggle to concentrate on the explanation. In their simplest terms here are the rules and technique of cross word puzzling:

The primary object of the game is to fill up the blank spaces in a cross word design with letters which spell out words. The solver guesses the words from their definitions. By looking at a pattern we can tell how many letters are in a word to be guessed. Suppose, for example, you were asked for a six letter word meaning unsteady. You would go through all the synonyms for unsteady that you could recall. You would discard unstable, shaky, tipsy, tottering and rocky because none of these words has the proper number of letters. You would accept groggy or fickle. Now apply this system to the solution of a puzzle.

The definitions of the words are shown in two divisions: one division is captioned Horizontal, the other Vertical. Before each definition is a number which indicates that the word defined has its first letter in the square of the same number on the pattern. For example, in the puzzle on the jacket of this book (which is Number 1 in the book itself), we see under Horizontal, “1. stout.” This means that the word is read horizontally and starts in the space numbered “1” on the pattern. The answer is “plump.”

A word always runs from its first letter to a black square or to the end of the diagram. Having the word “plump” written in, we now have hints of a certain letter in each of four other words, because each of the letters in this word, except the letter “L,” is used to form a word which is read downwards. Under the heading Vertical may be found the definitions of the words which read downwards. So we see that the letters in plump are used in the words prove, up, map, and plant. The letter “L” is called in cross word parlance an unkeyed letter because it does not give the solver a key to another word. Well constructed puzzles have few unkeyed letters. You will notice also that all the words in the puzzle are joined together or interlocked so that after guessing the first word the solver may decode the entire puzzle without once being minus a hint of some sort.

I do not mean to infer that these puzzles must be so constructed that the solver has a simple task. An object of crosswording is to puzzle, but fairness to a hard working puzzler dictates certain laws for the designer to follow. The first of these laws is the all-over interlock. The second is that in obsolete, rare, and unfamiliar words no letter should be unkeyed.

And now a few words as to technique. Of course I prefer my own method to any other, but I do not claim for it greater merit than the systems I will tell you about. When I get a puzzle to solve, my first move is to read all the definitions. Among these I am sure to find some familiar and overworked words which I can set into place and be off to a flying start. Certain simple three letter words such as bog, fen, pen, boa, emu, and roc, and other words in which vowels pre-dominate such as opera and arena are used in hundreds of puzzles. I get these out of the way in short order. My next move is to start working on that part of the puzzle where I have filled in the largest number of words, because it is there that I have the greatest number of hints. If I strike a snag I immediately take up my work in some other place. And so I work my way around to completion.

Some people obtain excellent results by another method. They first do all the horizontal words which quickly come to mind. And then all the vertical. Thus they get an excellent start from which to work. Some solvers use the system of building up from the first word which they can guess.

Just a few words of warning:

First—Beware of putting in certain words whose definitions do not accurately define. Parts of the verb “to be,” personal pronouns, exclamations, notes of the scale, prefixes, suffixes and prepositions should not be filled in unless an interlocking word gives you a hint as to what they are. They are so numerous that without a hint it is futile to attempt to guess them.

Second—Beware of homonyms. A homonym is two words which have the same sound, but have different meanings. The best illustration of a homonym appeared in F. P. A.’s column, the Conning Tower, a few years ago. According to my feeble memory the sentence ran, “If I should say that you are prone to carp, I would not mean that you are lying face downward to a deep sea fish.” How often does the solver struggle over such a definition as “light,” believing all the while that he must find a word meaning an illuminant, when the correct word is “airy”!

Third—Beware of sloppy printing and careless erasing. When you write in a word, letter neatly. Do not make a P look like an R. And when you find it necessary to erase be sure to obliterate every letter. Dangling characters which rubber crumbs have failed to pick up have cost so many wasted hours that experts in efficiency have taken up the matter in executive session.

Whatever method you employ or whatever mistakes you make, you will reap pleasure and profit for your time. You will increase your vocabulary, give yourself mental discipline, and, above all, you’ll have fun.

I want to thank the Plaza Publishing Company, whose real name is Simon and Schuster, for its work in getting out these Cross Word Puzzle Books. Most of the puzzles are of the first rank and the variety of design is amazing. In fact I feel so kindly toward the publishers that I do not upbraid them for the time they made me lose by a few errata in the first edition, which they promptly corrected in the later editions. I can heartily congratulate any owner of this Cross Word Puzzle Book and all the Cross Word Puzzle Books to follow on the days of real pleasure that lie before him.

William A. Stern, 2nd.

New York City, June, 1924.

HOW TO SOLVE A CROSS WORD PUZZLE

EXAMPLE

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 1 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | | 5 | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 6 | | |#####| | | |#####| | | |#####| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 7 | 8 |#####| |#####| 9 | | | | |#####| |#####| | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 10 | | |#####| 11 | | | | | | |#####| | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 12 | |#####| 13 |#####| 14 | | | | |#####| |#####| | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 15 | | 16 |#####| | | |#####| | | |#####| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 17 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Fig. 1

DEFINITIONS

Horizontal Vertical

1 Disparage 1 Evolve 6 Cereal grass 2 Toward 7 Abbr. Vice Admiral 3 A rodent 9 An edge-tool 4 Near 10 Urge 5 A web 11 Skill 8 Gone by 12 Behold 9 A land measure 14 Prefix: good 13 A male sheep 15 Impair 15 Indeed 17 Agreement 16 Disordered type

There are two essential points that must be remembered by initiates into the cross word puzzlers’ fraternity. First, the numbers in the squares refer to the definitions; secondly, there should be but one letter to each white square.

Figure 1 shows a cross word puzzle challenging each and every one of us to solve it. Looking the puzzle over we find that 1 horizontal calls for a seven letter word meaning “disparage.” That is not so easy, so we leave it temporarily. We go on to the next one, which is a three letter word meaning “a cereal grass.” What else could it be but OAT? Therefore we ink in OAT in the proper squares. “Vice Admiral.” That most assuredly must be VA. We place that into position. The ninth, tenth and eleventh do not come to our minds immediately, so we pass them up. We will catch them on the cross check. Twelve is familiar, however, and with a little thought we place LO in the vacant squares. The rest do not come to us, so we leave them also, and turn to the verticals.

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 1 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | | 5 | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 6 | | |#####| | | |#####| O | A | T |#####| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 7 | 8 |#####| |#####| 9 | | | V | A |#####| |#####| | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 10 | | |#####| 11 | | | | | | |#####| | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 12 | |#####| 13 |#####| 14 | | | L | O |#####| |#####| | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 15 | | 16 |#####| | | |#####| | | |#####| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 17 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Fig. 2

Looking over the diagram (See Figure 2) we find that one vertical calls for a seven letter word whose third and fifth letters are V and L respectively and which is defined as “evolve.” The V and the L give us the clue. The word is DEVELOP. We place it in the diagram. Two, three and four are easy, for we have three clues to work on and we find the proper words without much difficulty. The next one is beyond us, so we go on to the one numbered 8. We find that a three letter word—starting with A—meaning “gone by,” is needed. The clues of A and O enable us to get that without much trouble, and we place AGO in the square. We pass by nine, but thirteen is easy. “A male sheep?” Why, of course, the word is RAM.

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 1 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | | 5 | | D | | T | R | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 6 | | |#####| | | E |#####| O | A | T |#####| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 7 | 8 |#####| |#####| 9 | | | V | A |#####| |#####| | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 10 | | |#####| 11 | | | | E | G | |#####| | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 12 | |#####| 13 |#####| 14 | | | L | O |#####| R |#####| | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 15 | | 16 |#####| | | O |#####| | A | |#####| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 17 | | | | | | | | P | | | M | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Fig. 3

From now on the going is easy. We have plenty of clues to the words that we do not know. (See Figure 3.) Rechecking the horizontals, we find that we have the first, third, fourth and fifth letters of “disparage,” and with their aid we easily see that the word is DETRACT. Looking for a two letter word meaning “an edge-tool,” we soon find that there is but one word that will fit. We place AX in position. With nine vertical beginning with an A it is easy to find that ARE is the proper word. Ten horizontal proves to be EGG and eleven becomes ART. We say to ourselves that if we could only get five vertical we would have the puzzle solved. Well, why not? Is the second letter an a, e, i, o, or u? The definition gives it as “a web.” What word will fit but TEXTURE? We place that into position. Now, we find that we have the puzzle almost completed. Fifteen horizontal needs a three letter word meaning “impair.” Its middle letter must be an A. With the A to guide us that is simple. The word is “SAP.” Fifteen and sixteen being two letter words are easily found, and we place SO and PI into position. We now find that we have the puzzle completed with one exception. Seventeen horizontal has to be found. Its first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh letters are P OMI E. A consonant is needed for the second letter, and R seems to be the most logical choice. That gives us the word, which is defined as “agreement.” (See Figure 4.)

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 1 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | | 5 | | D | E | T | R | A | C | T | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 6 | | |#####| | | E |#####| O | A | T |#####| E | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 7 | 8 |#####| |#####| 9 | | | V | A |#####| T |#####| A | X | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 10 | | |#####| 11 | | | | E | G | G |#####| A | R | T | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 12 | |#####| 13 |#####| 14 | | | L | O |#####| R |#####| E | U | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |#####| 15 | | 16 |#####| | | O |#####| S | A | P |#####| R | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 17 | | | | | | | | P | R | O | M | I | S | E | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Fig. 4

We settle back into our chair with a sigh of content at the thought of a job well done. But that is not the finish. Rather it is but the start. Now that we have tasted the pleasures of cross word puzzling, we are loath to give our time to anything else. What other amusement offers the pleasure, instruction and satisfaction that is to be found in Cross Word Puzzles? There is but one answer to that question, and—foregoing the movies—we settle down to the elusive task of tracking words to their lairs.

DO’S AND DON’T’S FOR SOLVERS

Don’t get scared if you can’t guess the first horizontal word. Go through the list till you find a definition that you’re sure of. That is the simplest method of beginning the solution. When you have written in all the words you are sure of, you will have plenty of clues for the unknowns.

Don’t spent too much time with the long words unless you are sure of them. They will appear when the short ones have been solved. Of course, not all the short ones are easy, but they are generally more readily attended to than the long ones. Also, there are more of them, increasing the chances of finding familiar faces among the definitions.

If you think a word is right, pencil it in lightly till you are sure. This saves erosion of paper and temper. But never hesitate to try a word that may be right. The trial and error method holds in puzzling as it does in life.

Remember that the horizontals furnish a sure check on the verticals, and vice versa.

If you are hopelessly stuck, try another puzzle. Inspiration sometimes waits for a return engagement.

A pleasant feeling of something attempted, something done, accompanies the solution of a cross word puzzle. It’s good for the inferiority complex.

PUZZLE NO. 51

MADE IN A RATHSKELLER

A Duet

Two of the editors went out to lunch one hot day, with this result. By the way, this pattern is the same on which the puzzle for the World’s Championship was made up. Can you do it in ten minutes, ten and two-fifths seconds? That was the time it took William A. Stern II to win the championship.