CROSSWORDS: 1960s

Highlights | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | References

Highlights

• 1965: Reading-Work-Pieces by artist Arthur Köpcke resembles crossword; 2016: defaced (filled-in)
• 1969: Margaret Farrar (1st NYT crossword ed.) retires, succeeded by Will Weng;
  ARPAnet (precursor to Internet); Apollo moon landing

1965

• Reading-Work-Pieces nos. 32-32 + 124, Arthur Köpcke
• 51 years later...
• Art-Defacing Crossword Solver Now Says
  She Owns the Copyright to the New Piece MF; 8/3/2016
• Woman fills in crossword at museum only to discover
  it is a $89,000 artwork 7/16/2016
• Nuremberg museum horrified after woman fills in artwork
  resembling crossword puzzle A 91-year-old woman has found
  herself in trouble with a German museum after writing on an exhibit.
  Part of the avant-garde artwork was meant to look like an
  empty crossword puzzle; 7/14/2016

1966

• Crossword (TV game show); An unsold pilot for a game show, basically a crossword puzzle
  played by two teams of two, the game itself is on a large board. Each game has a title denoting the theme
  that the words will lead to. A player chooses a spot on the puzzle board, something like "ten across",
  or Twenty-two down" and then must guess the word from the clues supplied by the emcee.

1967

• "The pattern of the thing precedes the thing. I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose."
  ~Vladimir Nabokov likened writing a novel to creating a crossword in Paris Review interview
• The Clue in the Crossword Cipher (mystery) by Carolyn Keene; Nancy Drew Mystery Stories v44

1968

• Lyricist Stephen Sondheim begins creating cryptic crosswords for New York Magazine,
  helping introduce Americans to British-style crosswords.
• Beryl Reid Says Good Evening TV series;
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords Guardian; 9/20/2012; The Crossword Sketch video: 6:15;
  Reid as an uncouth train passenger irritates bowler-hatted commuters
  by sitting in their first-class carriage and interfering with their solving.

1969

• Margaret Farrar: Wikipedia 1st NYT crossword editor -- retires
• Few Gnus: The Woman Behind the Crossword-Puzzle Craze
  Farrar: "[p]robably the most important person in the world of the crossword puzzle."
  Her preferences for clues: "We don’t allow two-letter words and we avoid as much as
  possible obsolete words, variants, obscure words, and clichés—words like 'gnu' and 'emu'
  and 'proa' ... I favor using lots of book titles, play titles, names in the news, and so on.
  I also favor puzzles with a unifying theme ; New Yorker; 6/13/1959
• Margaret Farrar, Times Editor of Crossword Puzzles, Retires;
  Held Position Since '42 When Feature First Appeared NYT; 1/5/1969
• Margaret Farrar, 87, Editor Of Crossword Puzzles, Dies obit; NYT; 6/12/1984
• A Crossword Hall-of-Famer: Margaret Farrar by Helene Hovanec;
  .pdf; CROSSW RD Magazine; Nov/Dec 1992
• "Perhaps Margaret Farrar's greatest legacy is the large number of expert puzzlemakers
  she discovered and/or nurtured over the years – Will Weng, Eugene T. Maleska,
  Frances Hansen, Anne Fox, A.J. Santora, Diana R. Sessions, Jules Arensberg,
  Herbert Ettenson, Harold T. Bers, Mel Taub … the list goes on. Other editors have left
  their mark on the world of crosswords…, but it was Margaret Farrar, more than anyone else,
  who established the American crossword rules and format, and whose smooth, sensible,
  timeless style of editing I still try to emulate today." ~Will Shortz; 2006
• A Life In The Arts -- The Life Of Margaret Petherbridge Farrar innovations, rules; Electricka

• 
  

  Will Weng: 2nd NYT crossword editor, 1969-1977;
  "His greatest innovation for The Times crossword was humor," says Shortz.
  "He was genuinely a funny man and his sense of humor came through in the puzzles." [obit.], NYT

• Apollo 11 moon landing 7/24/1969
• ARPAnet first 2 "internet" hosts: UCLA & SRI (Stanford Research Inst.); 10/29/1969

References

• The 1960s crossword; NYT Learning Network
• Wikipedia: 1960s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 7: 1960s
  2001: A Space Odyssey; venture capital (Rock and Davis); Compact Disc; Muhammad Ali; Spacewar (videogame);
  Douglas Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos"; Nuclear Powered Carrier; Sketchpad (drawing program);
  Psychedelic Research; Concorde; Kennedy Assassination; Saigon Execution Photo; Wired; 12/06/2012
• Paleofuture: 1960s
• 9 Influential Inventions That Got Their Start in the 1960s 7/29/2019