Interview with Patrick Berry

Patrick Berry is the Tiger Woods in crossword world, arguably the best in the business.

He hasn't contributed any puzzle to LA Times, but his byline appears regularly in NY Times (mostly Friday and Saturday themeless). Since Sept 1999, Patrick has constructed 122 puzzles for NYT alone. He has also created puzzles for NY Sun, Wall Street Journal and the Game Magazines.

Patrick is the crossword editor of "The Chronicle of High Education". He is also the author of "Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies", absolutely the best book I've read on crossword. Doug Peterson called the 70 original puzzles contained in the book as "pure gold". Patrick also crafted "Puzzle Masterpieces: Elegant Challenges for Crossword Lovers", a sophisticated book for those advanced solvers. A classic!

Dan Naddor, Merl Reagle and a few other constructors I've interviewed all mentioned Patrick Berry as one of their favorite constructors. Dan Feyer called Patrick one of the best wordsmith in the world. I contacted Patrick and was so happy that he took time from his busy schedule and answered my questions.

What impact do you think "Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies" has had on the crossword construction world? Several constructors have mentioned that they turn to the book regularly for references and inspiration. And what new part would you add for an update?

I'm not sure the book has had a huge impact (heaven knows the sales figures have been modest), but I've received several kind e-mails from constructors who found it helpful, and that's always gratifying. I know from experience how hard it is in this biz for beginners to figure out what they're doing wrong by editorial correspondence alone.

If I ever got a chance to update the book (which seems unlikely, given what a niche market it's in) I'd probably add a short section on the actual submission process: what to say (or not say) in the cover letter, how long to wait before sending a follow-up nudge, and so on. But I only had 70 pages of text to work with -- the rest of the book had to be devoted to puzzles, appendices, etc. -- so on the whole I'm pleased at how much info I *did* manage to pack in.

What's your background? How did you get into crossword construction?

I've always been interested in puzzles, though while growing up I never thought I'd be able to make a career out of them. I graduated college with a Comp Sci degree and found work in desktop publishing, but I also contributed some puzzles to magazines. The company I was working for went bust in 1997 and I decided to see if it was possible to survive making puzzles full-time. (It is, but just barely...my puzzle talent is a mere nothing compared to my talent at living on the cheap.)

What is the puzzle you've made you're most proud of? Why is it special? What is the dream puzzle you wish to get published some day?

Not sure I have an absolute favorite among my own puzzles, but some of the second-Sundays I've done for the NYT would rate pretty high. Also "Color Change," a crossword that appeared in the New York Sun...I honestly didn't think the concept would be doable when I started it, but I was very happy to be proven wrong.

What kind of themes and fills appeal to you and what are the ones you try to avoid?

Theme-wise, I suppose I like anything that's a) funny or b) elegant. (A bit general, admittedly, but heaven knows there are plenty of themes that aren't either one.) For fills I suppose my first priority is cleanliness, second priority liveliness. Cleanliness comes before liveliness because I have a tough time stomaching dodgy entries...as a solver, one or two dodgy entries can pretty much ruin the experience for me.

Now that you've turned away from ultralow word count, what are your top concerns in making a themeless then?

Basically I'm trying to find the ideal balance between word-count and liveliness. 72-word themelesses don't interest me much because I think themeless solvers like having lots of long entries. But the less-than-60-word puzzles I've constructed have all been vaguely unsatisfying to me, as so many of the entries were (by necessity) lackluster. Obviously there's a happy medium in there somewhere, and that's what I aim for nowadays.

What puzzles do you solve on daily basis and who are your favorite constructors?

Truthfully I'm not much of a solver -- I seem to get enough of puzzles by making them. (It took me a while to realize what an anomaly this is within the biz -- I haven't met too many other constructors who feel this way.) The only puzzle I solve regularly is Cox & Rathvon's "The Puzzler," which alas recently went belly-up, though I've got my fingers crossed that it'll find a new home somewhere.

There are a great many constructors whose work I admire, but if I had to pick one favorite it'd probably be Mike Shenk, who has the extraordinary ability to make the construction look easy even when you know darn well it couldn't have been easy.

What kind of books/magazines do you read for inspirations? And besides making and editing crosswords, what else do you do for fun?

Inspiration for puzzles is, for me at least, a "wherever you find it" sort of thing...there's no specific book I'm reading, but my brain seems generally hard-wired to look for puzzle possibilities in whatever I bump up against. (Too often I find myself unconsciously considering the cryptic-clue possibilities of a word or phrase that isn't at all "in the language" and therefore useless...once you start down this path, it's hard to stop.)

Besides working on puzzles, I enjoy playing on the guitar (purely for fun - I don't play well enough for anything more grandiose than that).