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

Trying to solve crossword puzzles soon became an extremely popular activity at libraries where puzzle solvers 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!

By 1930 crosswords were no longer the fad they were in the early 20s, but by then they had become a staple of newspaper readers across the country. Virtually every significant newspaper in America carried them. Even the stodgy Times of London started publishing crosswords in 1942.

Puzzle books are still published by several specialty puzzle and games publishers and these remain very popular. Meanwhile the internet has created 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 comprehension skills, and to improve your vocabulary. In other words, crossword and word search puzzles are not only entertaining, but they are educational too.

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