Man has been defined as a “puzzle solving animal.” Riddles abound in the mythologies of many cultures, not least the riddle of the Sphinx which led Oedipus into trouble. “The Puzzler’s Paradise: From the Garden of Eden to the Computer Age,” by Helene Hovanec, is a light-hearted history which includes such gems as Sam Lloyd’s “Get Off the Earth” puzzle from 1896 in which 13 Chinese round the edge of a globe are made to reduce to 12. The puzzle still seems to defy explanation. Crossword puzzles had their beginning in the “New York World” newspaper in 1913. By 1925 they were so popular that a Broadway musical, “Puzzles of 1925,” was a great success with its satire of a sanitorium for crossword puzzlers who had gone mad trying to solve difficult clues. The scene above, from the musical, comes from “The Puzzler’s Paradise” (Paddington Press, 1978. 157 pp. Index. $6.95 paperback).

Press, 21 April 1979, Page 17

Man has been defined as a “puzzle solving animal.” Riddles abound in the mythologies of many cultures, not least the riddle of the Sphinx which led Oedipus into trouble. “The Puzzler’s Paradise: From the Garden of Eden to the Computer Age,” by Helene Hovanec, is a light-hearted history which includes such gems as Sam Lloyd’s “Get Off the Earth” puzzle from 1896 in which 13 Chinese round the edge of a globe are made to reduce to 12. The puzzle still seems to defy explanation. Crossword puzzles had their beginning in the “New York World” newspaper in 1913. By 1925 they were so popular that a Broadway musical, “Puzzles of 1925,” was a great success with its satire of a sanitorium for crossword puzzlers who had gone mad trying to solve difficult clues. The scene above, from the musical, comes from “The Puzzler’s Paradise” (Paddington Press, 1978. 157 pp. Index. $6.95 paperback).