Anna Shechtman presenting “The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle” in conversation with FRANCESCA WADE

Harvard Book Store welcomes ANNA SHECHTMAN—crossword puzzle creator for The New Yorker and Klarman Fellow at Cornell University —for a discussion of her new book The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. She will be joined in conversation by FRANCESCA WADE—author of Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars.

About The Riddles of the Sphinx

The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, spearheaded the The New Yorker’s popular crossword section. Working with a medium often criticized as exclusionary, elitist, and out-of-touch, Anna is one of very few women in the field of puzzle making, where she strives to make the everyday diversion more diverse.

In this fascinating work—part memoir, part cultural analysis—she excavates the hidden history of the crossword and the overlooked women who have been central to its creation and evolution, from the “Crossword Craze” of the 1920s to the role of digital technology today. As she tells the story of her own experience in the CrossWorld, she analyzes the roles assigned to women in American culture, the boxes they’ve been allowed to fill, and the ways that they’ve used puzzles to negotiate the constraints and play of desire under patriarchy.

The result is an unforgettable and engrossing work of art, a loving and revealing homage to one of our most treasured, entertaining, and ultimately political pastimes.