Acrostic (puzzle)
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An acrostic is a type of word puzzle, related somewhat to crossword puzzles, that uses an acrostic form. It typically consists of two parts; the first part is a set of lettered clues, each of which has numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks and spaces, representing a quotation or other text, into which the answers for the clues fit. By filling out as many of the clues as you can, placing those letters into the quotation, then filling letters into the quotation based on the pattern of letters in the words and backfilling those into the clues, you eventually come up with the full quotation. In some forms of the puzzle, the first letters of each correct clue answer, read in order from clue A on down the list, will spell out the author of the quote and the title of the work it is taken from; this can be used as an additional solving aid.
For example, two clues might be:
| A. Country of the Rising Sun: | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| 8 | 5 | 17 | 2 | 14 | |
| B. Not doing anything: | _ | _ | _ | _ | |
| 9 | 7 | 23 | 20 |
To fit into the following quotation form:
| _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
If the answer to clue A is JAPAN, then it fills in as follows:
| _ | A | _ | _ | A | _ | _ | J | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | N | _ | _ | P | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
Letters 16 and 17 form a two-letter word ending in P; this has to be UP; hence, letter 16 is a U, which can be filled into the appropriate clue answer in the list of clues. Likewise, a three-letter word starting with A could be and, any, all, or even a proper name like Ann. One might need more clue answers before daring to guess which it could be.
If the answer to clue B is IDLE, one could narrow down the 5/6/7 word to AND and the following word starting with JI; some people might already begin to recognize the phrase "Jack and Jill went up the hill".
Elizabeth S. Kingsley is credited with inventing the puzzle for Saturday Review in 1934, under the name double-crostic; since then, the name anacrostic also has been used, as have other nonce words ending in "-crostic." Later Saturday Review constructors were Doris Nash Wortman, Thomas Middleton, and Barry Tunick. Thomas Middleton also produced many puzzles for Harpers Magazine. Kingsley, Wortman, and Middleton created additional puzzles for The New York Times from 1952-1999, but not more than one every other week. Cox and Rathvon took over for the NYT in 1999. Similar puzzles called Trans-O-Gram, by Svend Petersen, and later, Kem Putney, appeared in The National Review from 1963-1993, . Trans-O-Grams were often themed puzzles, with clues related to the quote. The name Due-Crostic was used by the LA Times for puzzles by Barry Tunick and Sylvia Bursztyn. Charles Preston creates Quote-Acrostics for the Washington Post.Charles Duerr has written many fine books of Crostics and should be mentioned here.
[edit] External link
- Acrostics.org - Play acrostic puzzles online
