S&S Shutters Original Series, Yet Triples Output

It's the end of an era - but the start of an exciting new one - for the long-running Simon & Schuster "Crossword Puzzle Book" series, which began in 1924 with the original "Cross Word Puzzle Book", edited by Margaret Petherbridge.

It's been announced that this month's 258th volume is the final volume of the original Simon & Schuster series. But, in a happy turnaround to this seemingly sad announcement, Simon & Schuster announced the new Mega Crosswords series.

Edited by John Samson, these books will have 300 crosswords (100 of which will be 21x's) - the previous yearly output of the six CPB volumes - and be published three times a year, in January, June and October. The suggested price will be $13.95 which is a better value.

ADDENDUM: John Samson will again be accepting submissions for the newly expanded S&S offerings. Besides the usual assortment of 17's, 19's and 21's, he will now be accepting 15's. His updated spec sheet should soon be appearing on cruciverb.com.