The first known published crossword puzzle (above) was created by  journalist
Arthur Wynne (below) from Liverpool. The word game appeared in the Sunday
addition of  the New York World newspaper on December 21, 1913. Despite their enormous popularity, crosswords only appeared in the New York World. It wasn’t
until 1924 that a couple of recent graduates of the Columbia School of Journalism,
by the names of Dick Simon and Lincoln Schuster, set up their own publishing
company. Looking for something to publish, they settled on a book with puzzles
that had appeared in the New York World newspaper. The crossword book was
a huge hit and began a craze for the word puzzles worldwide.

Arthur Wynne

Left to right: Dick Simon and Lincoln Schuster with their first Crossword
Puzzle book