Why we turn to crosswords in times of crisis

On Dec. 18, 1941, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lester Markel, the Sunday editor of The New York Times, sent a memo to Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the paper’s publisher.

- NATAN LAST

In light of the bleak blackout hours to come, he argued, it was time to add a feature that The Times had resisted for nearly three decades: a crossword puzzle.

Markel was acting in part on the urging of Margaret Farrar, then the editor of Simon & Schuster’s puzzle books. “I don’t think I have to sell you on the increased demand for this kind of pastime in an increasingly worried world,” she told him. “You can’t think of your troubles while solving a crossword.”

The crossword has served this role – a solace for the anxious – throughout its history, particularly in times of crisis. Like any game, the crossword offers surmountable, lighthearted obstacles that provide a refuge from the outsize struggles of daily life. But the crossword also has a peculiar quality of straddling frivolity and seriousness. Its clues can cement the enduring status of their subjects, yet the crossword itself is ephemeral: solved, discarded and reborn the next day, in a state of constant reinvention.

As a distraction, a crossword might seem trivial – but the process of solving it has the distinct shape of intellectual labor, lending a refined sense of accomplishment to every solution. As a result, crosswords have always flourished in times of crisis – and may yet prove useful now.