Across the Universe
The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
An entertaining and eye-opening look at the history of crossword puzzles, who constructs them, and why crosswords matter as both a reflection of and influence on our culture
"Should be at the top of every gift guide for word nerds and puzzle enthusiasts everywhere.” —Chicago Review of Books
“A gridful of insight and pleasure.”—Stefan Fatsis, bestselling author of Word Freak and Unabridged
From Wordle to Spelling Bee, we live in a time of word game mania. Crosswords in particular gained renewed popularity during the COVID-19 lockdown, when games became another kind of refuge. Today, 36 million Americans solve crosswords once a week or more, and nearly 23 million solve them daily. Yet, as longtime New Yorker crossword contributor Natan Last will tell you, the seemingly apolitical puzzle has never been more controversial—or more interesting.
A surprisingly ubiquitous influence in the worlds of art, literature, and technology, as Last demonstrates, the puzzle and its most popular purveyors—including publications such as The New York Times, still the gold standard for word games—have in recent years been challenged for the way they prioritize certain cultures and perspectives as the norm, demoting others to obscurity. At the same time, the crossword has never been more democratic. A larger, younger, more tech-savvy, and solidaristic group of people have fallen in love with puzzle solving, ushering in a more inclusive community of constructors and challenging the very idea of what is "normal."
With a critical eye toward the puzzle's history, Natan Last explores the debates about the future of the crossword and investigates those who are determining its next phase, ultimately asking if the crossword can help us reshape the world. Across the Universe interrogates all the ways words—and the games we make using those words—change our culture, while bringing us into the world of those pushing for the crossword's much-needed evolution.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
New Yorker crossword constructor Last debuts with an enthusiastic if uneven exploration of the crossword puzzle. He gives an expansive overview of the game's history, from its 1913 origins—it was at first dubbed a "Word-Cross"—to the New York Times's ongoing domination (even though the Times rejected crosswords as "unserious, even dangerous" until WWII). The many angles the book takes include an astute look at present-day "dissatisfaction with editing norms" for skewing white and male; an overview of technological innovations, from '90s audiotext clue hotlines (1-900-884-CLUE) to today's AI crossword solvers; and an entertaining account of the 1920s crossword craze, which generated delightfully bizarre cultural spinoffs—like novelty song "Cross-Word Mamma, You Puzzle Me"—as well as comparisons between the viral crossword phenomenon and the flu. However, Last's own crossword craze leads him to make some big stretches, such as equating crosswords with modernist literature and fantasizing, in exhaustive detail, about the wall text at an imaginary exhibition of crossword maker Elizabeth Gorski's work ("In Gorski's hands, these grids... gesture at the grandiose"). The book charms most when Last shows crosswords bringing people together: adult siblings who bond over crosswords when caring for their ailing mother; a woman who completes her late father's folder of half-finished crosswords in "a collaboration across time." It's a meandering love letter best suited for fellow obsessives.
