According to most popular historians, the first crossword puzzle was published in New York World in 1913. It was created by Arthur Wynne. These first puzzles were called “word-cross” puzzles quickly became very popular in American newspapers - being published weekly in such papers as the Boston Globe by 1917 and into the 1920s.

Solving crossword puzzles soon became a popular activity at libraries where fanatics in the early 1920s made it difficult for others to get access to dictionaries and encyclopedias for normal use. Crossword puzzles became quite a fad in the 20s in America.

The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Simon and Schuster in 1924 and it came with a pencil attached. The book was very popular and helped make crossword puzzles the fad of 1924. This actually inspired a debate amongst sober minded American commentators and religious leaders, some of whom were convinced that crossword puzzles were a “sinful waste of time”, that provided only empty, childish entertainment with no redeeming intellectual stimulation. How times have changed!

Over the years The New York Times has been the most prestigious publisher of crosswords on a regular basis. That paper has had a dedicated editor of the daily crossword since 1942. The most recent New York Times crossword editor is Will Shortz who has been there since 1993. Shortz also is the founder of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and the World Puzzle Championship.

Puzzle books are still published by a number of specialty puzzle and games publishers and they are popular to this day. Meanwhile the internet has spawned a whole new interest in puzzles, as people can now download almost unlimited puzzles of almost any type. Crossword puzzles remain a very good way to improve your spelling and reading skills, and to improve your vocabulary. In other words, crossword and word search puzzles are not only entertaining, but they are educational too.