11 Facts About Margaret Farrar

Margaret Petherbridge Farrar was an American journalist and the first crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times.

Margaret Farrar eventually was allowed to create her own puzzles.

Margaret Farrar subsequently described her reaction as " an oath to edit the crosswords to the essence of perfection;" her puzzles eventually became more popular than Wynne's.

Margaret Farrar left the World to raise a family and restricted her work to editing books.

Margaret Farrar used her royalties from the crossword books, which her father had invested on her behalf, to underwrite Farrar's publishing business.

The first New York Times crossword was published under a pseudonym Margaret Farrar occasionally used, Anna Gram.

Margaret Farrar created many regulations that have become standards, such as limiting the number of black squares in the grid, creating a minimum word-length of three letters, requiring grids to have rotational symmetry and be an odd number of squares by an odd number of squares, and forbidding unchecked squares.

Margaret Farrar edited eighteen volumes of crossword puzzles for the paper.

Margaret Farrar edited novels for Margaret Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and upon her husband's death in 1974 she succeeded him as a member of the company's board of directors.

Margaret Farrar died June 11,1984, at her home in Manhattan.

Margaret Farrar's publishing record from 1924 to 1984 is the longest running continuous series in American history.