Who is Will Shortz?
The crossword editor of the New York Times. He is a homebody and lives in Pleasantville, New York in an 80 year old English Tudor style house. He is entirely devoted to crossword puzzles. He creates them, edits others and loves doing them himself. Shortz was the youngest of three children and was raised on an Indiana Arabian horse farm. He was making up his own puzzles and asking his family and friends to solve them when he was very young. He sold his first crossword puzzle when he was 14. He went to college at Indiana University and put together his own curriculum and became the only person to ever earn a degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles. He also got a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduating law school he found a job at Games magazine where he became editor within 1 year. He worked there for 15 years. In 1978 he founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament which is still directs. This was features in the documentary Wordplay. He later founded the World Puzzle Championship and is currently the director of the US team. In 1993 he became the crossword editor of the New York Times. He is the one that chooses from hundreds of puzzles that are sent in from the cruciverbalists. He often rewrites about half of the clues provided by them. About 1 out of 10 that are submitted make it to print. He checks the accuracy of each clue.
