Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle
About this book
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.
Author: Natan Last
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2026-11-24
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780593471104
Praise for this book
I've often said that my secret weapon on Jeopardy! was my lifelong crossword puzzle habit. Natan Last's exuberant, revealing journey through the vast grid of crossword history has helped me understand just why it is that I get so much pleasure, and so much benefit, from the seemingly trivial task of writing letters in squares. This book is a 15-letter quad-stack feat of cultural criticism!
A love letter to the crossword puzzle that is sprawling in its scope, deeply nerdy in sensibility, and passionate at its core. . . . A great read, chock full of fun facts about that most prestigious of puzzles. . . . It should be at the top of every gift guide for word nerds and puzzle enthusiasts everywhere.
Last is a really sharp writer and critic. . . . His writing is architectural — carefully structured with dividing punctuation, and of course, wordplay — it reads like he’s, well, putting together a puzzle, and it’ll keep you hooked like one. By the end, you’ll be convinced that the crossword is an art form, if you aren’t already.
Last’s range and intelligence help sell the importance of the crossword, then and now. [He] is a bright and witty guide through all of it.
Short of decoding the Rosetta stone, is there anything more satisfying than filling in a crossword grid? Gird yourself for a punster's paradise as you meet the people behind the clues in this engrossing history. Warning: This book is highly contagious.
An edifying portrait of the boxy tyrant devouring your free time. Last . . . details the riddlers, dreamers and of course, Will Shortz, who have helped shape the game's trajectory from its birth in a newspaper supplement more than a century ago to the conversations and controversy that color its virtual ubiquity today.
Quoted in excerpt, with attribution. Follow a source link for the full review.
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