In December 1913, the New York World newspaper published the first crossword in history. It appeared in their Sunday supplement, -Fun-.
A century on, this absorbing puzzle continues to attract (and infuriate) millions of devotees every day. But the world''s most popular - and seemingly mundane - pastime has a surprising history, filled with intrigue and adventure.
Paolo Bacilieri''s FUN transports us from turn-of-the-century New York to present day Milan, taking in stories of ingenious puzzle makers, ardent solvers and intellectual luminaries. Part detective story, part docudrama, and interlaced with a fiction of Bacilieri''s own imagining, FUN questions the crossword''s "harmless" status. Sure, it''s fun - but could it also be a form of resistance, of cryptic communication, of espionage?
