It was Christmas week, 1913, and Arthur Wynne, a puzzle editor at the New York World, was doodling around, trying to come up with something new for the holiday edition. Eventually he hit on an interlocking word puzzle set in a diamond-shape grid, which he called "Word-Cross" and ran in the paper on December 21.

Although Wynne intended his games as a one time event, puzzles fans clamored for more and the little gids, renamed "Cross-Word" became a regular Sunday feature in the World. Readers soon began submitting samples in all manner of designs, which Wynne gratefully published, often without testing them for accuracy.

When Margaret Petherbridge Farrar succeeded Wynne as puzzle editor in 1920, she chose the puzzles more for form than for content. But she soon discovered that "the crossword addict is a savage correspondent." Frustrated puzzlers, confounded by misspellings and mismatched clues in the published games, deluged her with sarcasm and complaints. After trying a puzzle herself, Farrar grasped the problem and vowed to "edit the puzzles to perfection."

With Farrar at the helm, the World's crossword puzzles got better and better. In 1924 neophyte book publishers Richard Simon and Max Schuster asked her to compile a collection of the games, which they issued, complete with a sharpened Venus Company pencil, as their first publishing venture.

Simon and Schuster's book proved an instant bestseller. In its first year it went into three editions, sold more than 400,000 copies, and caused a nationwide craze for crosswords. Sales of dictionaries and thesauruses soared. One publisher even attached an abridged dictionary to a wrist band so that it could be worn as a bracelet.

Clubs were formed, tournments held, and courses added to college curricula. Crosswords became a daily feature in the World. Excessive puzzling even became a legal issue. A Chicago woman won a court judgment against her husband on the grounds that she was a "crossword widow." And a patron at a New York restaurant, a man who refused to leave after dinner in order to complete a puzzle, was given a 10-day jail sentence for lexigraphic loitering. "More time to do my puzzles," crowed the happy convict.
- Discovering America's Past

The Largest Jigsaw Puzzle

The largest jigsaw puzzle measured 51,484 ft. and consisted of 43,924 pieces. It was assembled on July 8, 1992 in Marseille, France.

The largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle is manufactured by Educa Sallent Spain. It measured 7 ft. 10.4 in. x 4 ft. 5.5 in. 2.4 x 1.36 m and has 10,000 pieces.

The smallest commercially available jigsaw puzzle with a minimum of 1,000 pieces is manufactured by Educa Sallent, Spain. It measures 18 x 11 in. (46 x 30 cm) and has 1,000 pieces. These puzzles are all made from recycled materials, with designs ranging from European land marks to Disney and Seasame Street Characters.

Jigsaw Puzzle With The Most Pieces

A puzzle consisting of 209,250 pieces, each measuring 0.59 x 0.59 in., was completed at the Mulan Jigsaw Puzzle contest at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan. The overall measurement was 22 ft. 1 in. x 22 ft. 10 in.
- Guinness World Records