The Puzzle Lady

Margaret Farrar was born in New York City on March 23rd, 1897. Soon after graduating from college she got a position with the New York World in charge of the weekly crossword puzzle which the World had pioneered in 1913. Crossword puzzles were becoming popular in America and within a couple of years they were a national craze. Farrar, with two others, edited the Cross Word Puzzle Book (1924), the first such book ever published. It was a huge success, selling nearly 400,000 copies in its first year. After that, Farrar edited about two crossword puzzle books per year. Crossword puzzles became a fixture of most major American newspapers. Ironically, the New York Times refused to print them for years. Finally, in 1942, under Farrar's editorship, the Times began printing a crossword puzzle, and in 1950 it became a daily feature. Farrar retired form the Times in December 1968. She died in New York City on June 11, 1984, while working on her 134th book of crossword puzzles.