The Puzzling Pastime of Creating Crosswords

When Lou Sabin was a teenager, among his after-school hangouts was a Brooklyn pool hall, where the action was straight pool and card games. It was here he learned about another kind of pastime, and it had a profound influence on his life.

“A neighborhood character named Mel was playing cards with the poolroom owner," Sabin recalls, “and whenever the owner had to attend to business, Mel would put a pencil to something on his lap. I saw it was a New York Times crossword puzzle. At first, I thought he was solving it, then he told me he told me he was making a crossword using the puzzle’s grid. That intrigued me and I went home and made one myself. I submitted it to the crossword editor, Margaret Farrar, who rejected it with an encouraging note."

That small bump in the road was just that – small – and shortly afterward the long-time East Brunswick resident sold his first Times puzzle. It was 1950 and the start of a career that continues to this day.

A former magazine editor who left New York to join the staff of Boys' Life magazine, Sabin has had hundreds of daily and Sunday puzzles in the Times, as well as various other newspapers and magazines. He often works with his wife, Francene. They have co-authored many books for young readers, and have been constructing crossword puzzles for People Magazine since 1995.

“Fran does the research on a subject, then hands it to me,” said Sabin. “I construct the words-in-the-grid part, she then writes the clues, and out it goes to the magazine.

Among the 200-plus books the two have co-authored are biographies of Einstein, Beethoven, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, the Beatles and more.

“We’ve written throughout our marriage, which just marked its 50th anniversary,” he said. “We’ve come a long way since our first book, which was about dogs.”

While the process of creating a crossword puzzle may seem difficult – even mystifying – it’s not puzzling to an old hand like Sabin. It takes him about three to four hours to construct and clue a 15-by-15 daily puzzle. In addition, Sabin said puzzles such as the Times’ typically begin the week with those that are easier to solve and get progressively harder, with Friday and Saturday the most daunting.

“People who solve puzzles enjoy the challenge of conquering it,” said Sabin. “People who make them enjoy it too. I’ve always loved making them, and I have no plans to stop now.”