A way with words
To say that David Steinberg got an early start in the world of crosswords doesn't quite do justice to what he has achieved in the puzzle world.
While still a senior in college, as a psychology major at Stanford University, Steinberg became the crossword editor for Andrews Mcmeel Universal syndicate service, and subsequently was promoted to his current position of puzzles and games editor, responsible for, among other things, the crosswords that are published in hundreds of newspapers around the world, and in Postmedia newspapers here in Canada as of next week.
Very impressive for a guy in his early 20s.
Except, that wasn't the early-start part.
Before taking on the Universal role, Steinberg was already a veteran crossword editor and compiler, with close to a decade making waves in the puzzle world. When looking at the careers of wunderkinds, it's customary to start at the beginning and take it from there. But in this case it may be more elucidating to work backward.
Before taking over Andrews Mcmeel's flagship Universal Crossword, Steinberg edited their Puzzle Society Crossword, at the age of 21. This was years after being hired by the Orange County Register in 2012, at the age of just 15, as their crossword editor.
The Register had interviewed the young crossword wiz previously, and “one of the questions they asked me was, what would your dream job be? So, I told them I wanted to be a crossword editor. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but then a few months later the Orange County Register reached out again and said, `Hey. we're starting a new weekly crossword feature, how would you like to edit it?'
“I was never expecting anything like that or for them to put control of that puzzle in the hands of a 15-year-old. I was like, why not? Go for it!”
So, at the age of 15, Steinberg became the youngest editor ever of a major newspaper company's crossword.
When he was just 14, Steinberg became the youngest person to have a crossword published in the New York Times. Other credits piled up, from the Los Angeles Times to the Wall Street Journal, and Newsday to the Jerusalem Post.
But as we're heading back in time, we may as well keep going and look for some clues to how Steinberg arrived to these heights in the crossword universe.
“I was into letters from a very young age,” he says. “My parents keep telling me that I used to play with letters a lot and my favourite was the `J.' Then when I got a little bit older, I loved playing Scrabble with my parents and then I did a lot of those Jumble puzzles in the newspaper.”
For good measure, he tried his hand at newspapers, creating a mini daily for his family.
Born in Philadelphia in 1996, Steinberg grew up in Irvine, Calif., and subsequently in Seattle. Both his parents were of a language-related bent. “My mom got her masters in Russian literature, and my dad got his PHD in English, so it's definitely a very literary family.
“The funny thing is, after I became a crossword constructor a bunch of years later, both of my parents got into it.” Steinberg says. “Like I kind of inspired them and now they're making some puzzles, too. And you know, I've published a couple of theirs, and there's one coming up actually.”
Steinberg's job as editor at Universal keeps him busy supervising, selecting and editing the work of some 650 constructors from around the world who submit their puzzles for consideration, including about 30 from Canada (who do their level best to slip in solutions with correctly spelled words like colour and neighbour).
“I still do construct, not quite as often anymore. I construct stuff for the New York Times occasionally, just to keep my name in there.” Steinberg limbers up each day by blasting through the NYT crossword, and until recently attended (and sometimes won) crossword competitions around the United States, racing against other competitors and the clock, ever mindful of demerit points for wrong answers.
“And I'll occasionally do cryptics, because I find them fun, for variety,” says Steinberg, referring to the diabolical British-style puzzles that include references to Latin prefixes, obscure nymphs from Greek mythology and lines from Milton's Paradise Lost.
This is — many will be relieved to hear — not what is in store with the Universal daily and weekend puzzles. These are the North American-style crosswords, where every letter is part of two answers.
“If you're stuck, you've got two chances to get every letter,” Steinberg explains. “The philosophy I have is a little bit different even than a lot of other American crosswords. I want every answer in the puzzle to be something that you either know or something that feels worth knowing and not just something obscure and something you'd have no chance of getting and don't care about.”
Also, the Universal puzzles are designed to be solved, not crumpled up in frustration.
“We're trying to hit that sweet spot for people where it's just hard enough to give you a little bit of a challenge but not so hard that you're going to throw your hands up in the air and give up.”
And the best advice Steinberg can give for doing the crossword?
“There was a crossword editor at the New York Times named Will Weng in the 1970s and he always used to tell people, `it's your crossword, solve it any way you like'. So basically, if you want to Google stuff, if you want to peek at the answers or look something up, that's totally fine. It's your puzzle. You can play it whichever way it makes you feel best.”