In Memoriam: Charles Gersch, Will Weng's Submission Guidelines, Robert Guilbert Update, and More

In Memoriam:  Charles Gersch, 1930–2017

Photo by Don Christensen.

It is with great sadness that I report the recent passing of another crossword great, Charles Gersch.  His son Jonathan, also a Times crossword constructor, contacted me with this news in August.  Charles was the beloved husband of Marianna and devoted father of Alan, Jonathan, and Jennifer.

I was honored to interview Charles four years ago for this blog; he published 47 puzzles in The New York Times and continued his impressive constructing by hand, even after computer software became available.

On August 21, Will Shortz posted the below reminiscence on Cruciverb.com:

Passing of Charles E. Gersch

Jonathan Gersch, the son of Charles E. Gersch, has asked me to post the sad news of his father's passing.

Younger constructors may not know, but Charles was one of the greats in crossword history.  His first puzzle appeared in the old New York Herald Tribune on Feb. 21, 1944, when he was just 13 years 6 months of age.  This made him the youngest known crossword constructor for a major newspaper in history — until that record was broken, narrowly, earlier this year in the Times.

I published 17 of Charles' puzzles between 1994 and 2010.  He had 30 more under my predecessors, going back to 1953, and many more in other venues, including the Herald Tribune, Newsday, Simon & Schuster books, Games magazine, Crossworder's Own Newsletter, etc.

In one memorable 1996 Times puzzle, Charles had GEORGE BURNS and GRACIE ALLEN stacked near the top, OH GOD BOOK II and CENTENARIAN stacked near the bottom, THE SUNSHINE BOYS running across the middle, and CIGAR SMOKER and COMEDY TEAMS reading down, crossing the central entry — all in a pretty solid construction.  That's fancy puzzlemaking.  It ran, appropriately, around Burns' 100th birthday.

David Steinberg published an interview with Charles here (scroll down to Aug. 23, 2013).

My condolences to Jonathan and everyone who knew his father.

—Will Shortz

Although Charles is no longer with us, he and his puzzles will continue to have a celebrated place in crossword history.

Will Weng's Submission Guidelines

This summer while helping Will Shortz with crossword submissions, I came across a page of guidelines for constructors written by none other than former New York Times crossword editor Will Weng!  There were no other pages, but this one was a copy, which Will Shortz let me keep (thanks again, Will!).

"The Crossword Puzzle Information Sheet" (see below) was sent to a constructor and has this handwritten note by Weng at the top:  "Your puzzle looks pretty good.  But— please follow the format."  An arrow points to details on "Mechanics in general" and "Particulars."

Perhaps the most interesting thing about these guidelines is Weng's philosophy on what puzzles should be.  He preferred their difficulty to come from clever clues and lively words and phrases, rather than from obscurity.  This philosophy was ahead of its time and foreshadowed the "new wave" and today's "golden age of crosswords."

Robert Guilbert Update:  The Crossword Puzzle Hall of Fame

Several weeks ago I received an email from Jon Guilbert, whose older brother, Rob, had written to him about following up on previous coverage on their father, Robert, in this blog.  Beginning in 1988, Robert Guilbert spearheaded an effort to create a Crossword Puzzle Hall of Fame.  (For more details, see the posts of November 21, 2014;  December 5, 2014; December 19, 2014; and May 22, 2015.)  Jon had written previously about his father in a blog comment, which you can read here, and offered more details about this enterprise and his father's fascinating life:

He was a remarkable man—as are all/most fathers I would think—and this was his last "big project and idea" before his death in October of 1990.  In the [below] photo he can be seen working on a puzzle that he designed as a "Moebius Strip"—an "Infinity Crossword Puzzle"—a puzzle without a beginning and an end. He was going to have this game manufactured and marketed under the name "Pago Pago," I believe.  I also think his work on this crossword game of his was the genesis for his wanting to create an institution recognizing and honoring the "greats" within the crossword world. . . . [O]ur Dad . . . was also the original "Don Winslow of the Navy" playing the lead character in the late 1930s NBC coast-to-coast radio thriller and an advertising executive with J. Walter Thompson.  The luncheon meeting—the first and last of the Institute—was held at the Harvard Club in NYC.  Dad had made a connection with one of the members of the Club, who offered it as a meeting place.  I know Dad was very pleased to have this "blue ribbon" venue [in which] to gather.

Guilbert working on an "Infinity Crossword Puzzle." 

Thanks so much again, Jon and Rob!  I wish I could have met your father.

Joli Quentin Kansil, aka Joel Dennis Gaines:  Another "Unknown" Constructor Found

Recently Will Shortz received an email from Joli Quentin Kansil, who had published six crosswords in the Times during the 1970s under two names:  Joel Dennis Gaines, for the earlier puzzles; and Joli Quentin Kansil, for the later ones.

Will asked Joli for the dates of those puzzles, and with that information, Jim Horne of XWord Info and I were able to add names to some of the previously "Unknown" constructors in our databases.

Joli mentioned that he'd also designed three word games—Knock-on-Word, Montage, and What's My Word—and that Joli's first boss, Albert H. Morehead, was the Times's first bridge editor and an early designer of puns and anagrams puzzles.

We're grateful to Joli for this valuable update and hopeful that more currently anonymous pre-Shortzian constructors surface in the future.

Jim Page's Puzzle Count

Some time ago renowned constructor Jim Page sent me a copy of an email he'd sent to Jeff Chen at XWord Info.  Because there were two pre-Shortzian constructors with the last name of Page—Jim and Christopher—and many bylines in what records we do have list only the constructor's last name, determining which puzzles were built by Jim has been difficult.  (And, as I've often mentioned, thousands of daily puzzles remain anonymous, with no record of their constructors.)  Here's what Jim wrote:

I'm currently working on puzzle number 1,232.  That 1,232 total number includes puzzles published in The New York Times, NY Post, NY Daily News, NY Sun, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Newsday, Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Crossword Puzzle Club, USA Today, Simon & Schuster.  That 1,232 figure includes puzzles accepted for publication, some works in progress and some puzzles rejected.  Some lost to history, as well.

Here's the NY Times breakdown on published puzzles:

Will Weng

19 dailies (uncredited)  2 Sundays (credited)     total        21

Gene Maleska

48 dailies (uncredited)  23 Sundays (credited)   total        71      

Will Shortz

68 dailies (credited)     10 Sundays (credited)    total        78

                                                                                                                                                                                        (170)

He added:

[T]his is as accurate as I'm able to be, give or take some puzzles lost to history.  I've credited myself with 3 Maleska Sunday puzzles that Gene had accepted for publication in the Times and that Shortz rejected upon his appointment as editor. Those 3 puzzles got published elsewhere.

Thanks so much, Jim—at least we have this information now, which is more than what exists on many other pre-Shortzian puzzles whose authors will likely remain anonymous.

More Todd Gross Finds:  Audrey Joy Koch, Bob Lubbers, Melvin Kenworthy, and Robert Doll 

This summer I received an email from crossword constructor and historian Todd Gross informing me of an obituary of Audrey Joy Koch.  Koch passed away in 2011 at the age of 91 and published at least five crosswords in The New York Times.  To read more about Audrey, click here.

A couple of weeks later, Todd found an obituary of cartoonist and New York Times crossword constructor Bob Lubbers, who'd recently passed away.  Lubbers, who published at least one pre-Shortzian puzzle in the Times and four Shortz-era puzzles.  According to this obituary, Bob won an award for the best Sunday crossword in 1995, which was reportedly his first constructing attempt.  This 1995 date, though, may be a mistake, since Lubbers's earliest published puzzle in The Times was published on April 13, 1975, and was his only Sunday publication there.  To read more about Bob, click here.

Todd emailed me again about other finds:  an obituary of Melvin Kenworthy, who published at least 23 pre-Shortzian puzzles in The New York Times; and an obituary of Robert Doll, who published 6 Shortz-era crosswords in the Times.  Todd noted that although Doll passed away in 2011, his final Times puzzle didn't appear until 2013.

Thanks again, Todd, for all this great research!

George Rose Smith

Solver Nick Harvey wrote to me some time ago about George Rose Smith, constructor of at least 10 pre-Shortzian puzzles published in the Times.  Nick had been working his way through the Sunday puzzles from 1969 to the present and noted, "This allows me to watch the evolution of the NYT puzzle unfold as I go through the Weng, Maleska, and early Shortz eras."  He became curious about George Rose Smith and wrote the following:

I had finally thrown in the towel after finishing most of the November 2, 1980, puzzle, "Nickname Dropping," but not being able to get that last themer figured out.  Try this puzzle—it has quite a tricky theme, especially for its time.  Similar "substitution" themes have appeared in the Maleska and early Shortz period of the 80s/90s, but this is one of the earliest, and I would imagine that solvers back in 1980 could have had a lot of trouble with this.  I still appreciate the genius into coming up with this theme, and finding ten examples to work symmetrically into the grid—not an easy thing to do in a time when very few people had access to a computer (and probably not even a VCR or microwave oven—vinyl was still the main format for recorded music).  Weng and Maleska really rolled the dice on trying out some groundbreaking theme ideas on the solving public, and Shortz has of course continued on that tradition.

Anyway, I found this on Mr. Smith.  It turns out that, just like Victor Fleming today, he was a judge in Arkansas.  One wonders if he was the one who got Mr. Fleming into solving (and ultimately constructing) the NYT crossword puzzle.  I can certainly imagine that Justice Smith and Justice Fleming may have been colleagues at one time, serving together for Arkansas's judicial system.

George Rose Smith passed away in 1992, during a period in the early '90s that saw an unusually high number of deaths in the top echelon of puzzlemaking (Luzzatto, Lutwiniak, Maleska, and Weng, to name a few).  I can only hope that the constructors who have moved on from this world, are looking down on me from Heaven and watching me whenever I am working on one of their creations. :-)

Links:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19657

http://lrculturevulture.com/tag/judge-vic-fleming/

Constructors of the past may be long gone, but they are immortalized by the legacy of their puzzles to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Very interesting stuff, Nick—thanks for sending this, and happy solving!

Judson G. [Gordon] Trent, aka Gordon S. Trick?

A while back I received an email from Julie (Trick) Munsterman, who'd been doing genealogical research and come to the conclusion that pre-Shortzian constructor Judson G. Trent—possibly Judson Gordon Trick/Trent—was her great-uncle.  Julie noted that census documents suggest he was born Gordon S. Trick, which might explain some of the difficulty in tracking down his history online.  She added that Trick's father was a Presbyterian minister and suggested that this could explain the theological studies.

Thanks for this genealogical sleuthing, Julie—this seems like an especially "tricky" trail!

Wrap-up

That does it for the time being, since school is about to start up again.  But I do have some other interesting things to go through that I hope to write about at some point in the future!

Updated List of Missing Puzzles, Plus an Olio of Todd Gross Pre-Shortzian Constructor Research

Project Update

After sorting through the pre-Shortzian constructor names and posting the remaining PS Notes on XWord Info recently, I went through my records and put together an updated list of the missing puzzles, whose 143 dates are listed below.  A few other dates not included below were problematic, and some puzzles (such as, but not restricted to, 10/11–10/18/65) have PDFs in ProQuest, but the PDFs aren't of the puzzles that should have run—they show repeats of puzzles that appeared earlier.

If anyone wants to help search for these puzzles, be sure to read the previous posts about the missing puzzles first.  I still think the only places we might find them at this point is in old books of the daily Times crosswords (best bet) or in the Times's International or Los Angeles editions, both of which published the puzzles concurrently.  Unfortunately, now that "everything" has been put on ProQuest, locating actual copies of these old editions, even in microfilm form, may not be possible through traditional channels.  It's always possible, though, that someone somewhere kept copies of all the old International or Los Angeles papers, though after all these years their condition probably wouldn't be good.

1953 (9):  11/30, 12/1–12/8
1958 (17):  12/12–12/28
1962 (4):  12/15, 12/16, 12/23, 12/30
1963 (13):  1/6, 1/13, 1/20, 1/27, 2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31
1965 (13):  9/18, 9/25, 9/26, 10/2, 10/3, 10/10, 10/11, 10/13, 10/14–10/18
1978 (87):  8/10–8/12, 8/14–11/5

Olio of Todd Gross Pre-Shortzian Constructor Research

Litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross recently sent me the results of some more of his research on pre-Shortzian constructors—here's an olio of those findings, with constructors listed alphabetically in the order of their last names.  (Puzzle totals listed may be less than the actual puzzle totals, since many puzzles lacked bylines.)

Emory Cain

Todd discovered this obituary of Emory Cain, who began his lifelong newspaper career at age 12 and published 10 puzzles in the Maleska era.

William Canine

Todd also found a puzzle published in The Lethbridge Herald [Alberta, Canada] in September 1941 by a William Canine.  The puzzle appeared 40 years before "the" William Canine's first New York Times puzzle, which was published on October 16, 1981, so whether or not this is the same person is unclear, though it seems likely.  William Canine published 65 puzzles in the Maleska era and 2 during Will Shortz's editorship.

Part of 1941 puzzle by William Canine.

Walter Covell

Photo courtesy of Conservatory Craftsmen.

Todd also discovered this obituary for Walter Covell, an entertainer who published 33 puzzles in the Maleska era and 1 in the Shortz era.  Googling a bit, I discovered that Walter also has a brief bio on IMDb, which mentions his 1985 Clue VCR Mystery Game credit (as Colonel Mustard).

Chester (Chet) Currier

Photo courtesy of AHBJ.org.

Todd found quite a bit on Chester (Chet) Currier, who published 12 puzzles in the Weng and Maleska eras and 6 in the Shortz era.  Here's an excerpt from Todd's e-mail about Chet:

He worked for the Associated Press, and while he did compose many crossword puzzles for them, his main beat was business.  In fact, he worked for Bloomberg after the AP.  Though a native New Yorker, Chet moved . . . [to] Manhattan Beach [California] in 2005 . . . but, alas, didn't get to live there long, having passed away in 2007. . . . Chet wrote crosswords for the AP as well as business articles.  At least once, he wrote an AP article about crosswords. . . .

Here's that article, which appeared in the March 5, 1979, Schenectady Gazette and is about that year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament:

Image courtesy of Google news.

Todd also directed me to Chet's Wikipedia page, as well as to an obituary of him in the American History of Business Journalism, at AHBJ.org.

Betty Jorgensen

Although he wasn't sure he'd found the correct person, Todd told me about some research he'd done on Betty Jorgensen, who published 69 puzzles in the Maleska era (and under Mel Taub), as well as 8 in the Shortz era.  Here's Todd's report:

An S&S puzzle of hers mentions Oregon, so I used that to try and find her. . . . Well, I found a Betty Jorgensen in Portland, born in 1919 and passed away 2008.  I was able to find her obituary on the Oregonian web site. . . . Alas, the obit made no mention of crosswords, which is odd considering how many she published.  So I can't be sure I have the right person.  I've found other Betty Jorgensens, but they aren't in Oregon and don't seem to be good candidates.  I have found out a fair amount about this Betty Jorgensen . . . but, again, nothing tying her to crosswords.  But she wrote poetry, which seems fitting.

Hopefully we'll be able to identify Betty definitively at some point in the future.

Bob Lubbers

Photo courtesy of Wikia.

Following up on his research on Louise Earnest, Todd discovered some information about Bob Lubbers (who, he noted, is likely the second-oldest living New York Times constructor after Louise).  Bob, a cartoonist, published 1 puzzle under Weng and 4 in the Shortz era.  Todd found this article that, despite the byline at the top, appears to be by Bob Lubbers.  Following up on Todd's lead, I discovered that Bob has his own very extensive Wikipedia page that mentions his crossword activities!  It's a fascinating overview of Bob's creative activities and also links to the National Cartoonists Society Web site, where I found this "bio" in the Members Directory:

Image courtesy of the National Cartoonists Society.

Marjorie (Lamont) Pedersen

Photo courtesy of Medford High School.

Todd also discovered an obituary of Marjorie Pedersen, who published 12 puzzles in the Weng and Maleska eras, as well as a long document about her from the archives of Tufts University, from which she received her B.A. and where she was chairman of the Department of Shorthand and Typewriting.  Here's something that appeared toward the end of the document:

Originally published at Tufts University.

Todd wrote:

I'd never heard of this, so I asked Will about it.  He hadn't heard of it either (though he pointed out such an event wouldn't have been the first ever such meeting, he'd arrange something similar in Fairfield Co., CT in 1977).

He also found more information on someone he thinks was her:

I found a few pictures of a Marjorie Lamont, all of whom look like the same person.  But one is a high school picture from 1939, when she would have [been] 21.  So I'm enclosing a picture from a different (but not far away) high school, when she would have been 17 (almost 18).

I'm pretty sure she was born Marjorie Louise Lamont on 8 Jun 1917 somewhere in the Boston area.  In the 1940 Census she was living with her parents in Medford, MA working as a teacher in a secretarial school.

Here's what appeared next to her photo in the Medford High School 1935 yearbook:

Image courtesy of Medford High School.

Joy L. Wouk

Finally, Todd discovered that a special edition of Random House's Sunday crossword series (volume 25) mentioned that Joy was the "sister of noted novelist Herman Wouk."  Apparently, though, she was actually Herman's sister-in-law—her husband, Victor, was Herman's brother.  Joy, who published 124 puzzles in the Maleska era (and under Mel Taub) and 9 in the Shortz era, passed away in 2008, as documented in this brief Times obituary.

Thanks so much again, Todd, for all your great research and leads!  It's especially nice, too, to finally have photos of some of these constructors!