Ximenes On The Art Of The Crossword Pdf
Perpetuo Carlson
Macnutt was born at Eastbourne in Sussex and was educated at Marlborough College before achieving a Double First in classics at Jesus College, Cambridge. Between 1928 and 1963 he held the position of Head of Classics at Christ's Hospital near Horsham, West Sussex, as well as being a housemaster.[1] The historian Norman Longmate wrote that he was the "James Boyer of his day, a notable teacher of the classics, respected, even liked, by his older pupils, dreaded by the younger boys, a bully and a brute". At the school he was widely known for the pleasure he obtained from caning the boys in his charge.[2]
In 1939 he took over the position of crossword compiler for The Observer on the death of Edward Powys Mathers, who had written under the name of "Torquemada". Macnutt selected the name Ximenes after Francisco Jimnez de Cisneros, one of Torquemada's successors as Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition.[3] He pronounced 'Ximenes' in an Anglicised fashion, /ˈzɪməniːz/.[4][5]
As Ximenes, Macnutt's puzzles gained an enthusiastic following. His many fans organised dinners on the occasion of his puzzles number 100, 250, 500, 750 and 1000, with the 1968 dinner hosting nearly 400 solvers. His followers, known as Ximeneans, often sported a specially designed black tie covered in small white crosses.
Well-known Ximeneans include Stephen Sondheim, P. G. Wodehouse, and Leonard Bernstein. Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse books, named his most famous characters after two prize-winning Ximeneans, Sir Jeremy Morse and Mrs D. W. Lewis,[7] and he named Morse's old Inspector Macnutt. In Rex Stout's Might as Well Be Dead (1956), detective Nero Wolfe is said to be working on a puzzle by Ximenes.
In his 1966 book, Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword (reissued 2001), he laid down rules that he claimed should be present in all good crosswords. These are now known as the "Ximenean principles". They include using a symmetric grid, and the specification of maximum and minimum numbers of "unches" (unchecked letters i.e. ones that only appear in one word in the grid) for a given length of answer. More importantly, he insisted that all clues must be scrupulously fair via rules that were summed up by his successor, Azed, as:
A few years ago, I came across the word 'Ximenean' in an esoteric discussion on a crossword forum. A clue was being scoffed at for being devoid of this quality. Having never read a book about cryptics or known anyone who could explain that, I was awestruck. (There is something about the word 'Ximenean' that has that effect.) A frantic search online followed, which led to my introduction to the art and precision that lies behind cryptic crosswords.
Ximenes' repute is not just for his puzzles, but for the standards he laid down for creating good crosswords. His principles of crossword composition were gradually recognized and adopted as a kind of model for setting by other daily puzzles too.
So when people say that a clue, crossword grid or setter is Ximenean, they mean that the clue/grid/setter abides by the standards set by Ximenes. Likewise, an unXimenean (or non-Ximenean) clue/grid is one that violates Ximenes' principles.
(Residents of India - beg, borrow, steal from friends overseas - the book is not available in the country. If you find any online bookstore that delivers to an Indian address, please leave a comment about it on this post.)
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I'm not sure that Ximenes is necessarily the best ever, though he's a strong contender. I don't know where "father of cryptic crosswords" comes from, but he wasn't - if any single person was, it was his predecessor Torquemada.
It's rather an exaggeration to say that his rules were the foundation of cryptic crosswords in his time - they were gradually adopted by the daily paper puzzles (though still not quite in full) over a period of 20-30 years after his book appeared.
Shuchi,
Do you know when I got this book?
Way back in the early 1970s.
I must have seen the title in a catalogue in the British Council library here in Madras.
And those were the days when there were all kinds of import restrictions by the GoI.
And we didn't have the Internet for online purchases.
I placed a special order with a bookshop in a historic building on Mount Road, Madras, who got the single copy for me.
The building is still there but the shop is gone in the face of assault by modern-day big chain shops.
I agree that the book is a seminal work. It gave me an insight into the art.
But crosswords have come a long way and while there are some that do not follow any principles (I needn't give you examples of Indian composers) there are those UK crosswords that are aslo very good though they may not strictly follow all of the X principles.
What I would say is a crossword composer must follow rules and principles even if they be set by him (or her) and be consistent in their application.
Incidentally, you may not have solved any puzzles by Ximenes, have you? I have a book of his crosswords but let me say that some of the clues could be rather boring if they are set against those crafted by some of the modern-day practitioners.
As always, very resourceful. I was introduced to Ximenean clues only a year ago, but that's one thing you can never read enough of. If I remember right, Nimish had posted some chapters of the book on Facebook.
Will look the books up.
gauri
@Peter: Re: "father of cryptic crosswords", the term does seem to be used for Ximenes rather a lot, though how well-deserved it is may be open to question. References: Derek Harrison's page, Times Online article, Wikipedia.
@CVasi: I've tried to solve some of Ximenes' puzzles (Source: ) and then seen his clues in the book. I have only managed to flip through the book borrowed. Don't know about boring, from what I saw of his clues I was very impressed!
Wanted to touch upon deviations from Ximenean standards in modern puzzles, but the article was getting too long, so have reserved that for a follow-up. Alberich's 2nd article linked from the post talks about this. I particularly like the anecdote at the end of his article.
@gauri: Thank you! You're in US, aren't you? I found the book on Amazon US, but priced at $108. You might get a better deal if you order from UK, even with international shipping.
Shuchi,
Derek Harrison's page gets it right by adding the key word "modern" in front of "crossword puzzle" (though it forgets "cryptic"). I don't know where the the Times journalist got the phrase from, but wiki seems to have just got it from the Times.
I did struggle to find this book in the UK too. Even the popular book stores like WH Smith and John Smith would only list it but won't sell it. Finally, managed to buy it from Amazon for a whopping 24 quid while the list price is only 7.95 as Vasi sir quoted. Haven't started reading it yet but I hope it's good.
Macnutt's book is difficult to obtain even in the West, but I can think of two alternatives which may be available in India: Alec Robins "Teach Yourself Crosswords" (AKA "ABC of Crosswords") and Bon Manley's "Chambers Crossword Manual". Manley is definitely available on amazon.in. If you search for "cryptic crossword" on amazon.in you'll find some more alternatives. Robins is marked as unavailable but might turn up in second-hand bookshops. Good luck!
Ximenes took over as crossword setter for the Observer in 1939. Hewas to set new standards of fairness and humour and is considered, rightly,to be the father of the modern crossword puzzle. On thissite you can find out about Ximenes, his puzzles, his clues and winning cluesin his competitions.
These can be viewed at
have tried (with the help of Peter Biddlecombe, to whom I extend my
thanks) to ascertain the copyright holder, but without success. The book has
been out of print for over 30 years, and the original copyright rested with
the author, who died in 1971. If anyone knows with whom the copyright now
rests, I would be extremely grateful for the information, so that I can seek
(retrospective) permission for making the book available.If you spot any errors please let me know so that I can corrrect the pages -
though in some cases you may be fooled by the author's sometimes archaic and
idiosyncratic ways of expressing himself.For those who are interested, the grids, diagrams and solutions were
produced using Antony Lewis' Crossword Compiler (Version 5.02) and Ross
Beresford's Sympathy (Version 1.4), as appropriate.Enjoy!Jeremy Goulstone
If anyone is also having trouble I would be more than happy to email a
copy to them, which ought to make life a little easier. Just send me an
email at ande...@hotmail.com and I'll send a copy of the file back to
you.Cheers
Phil
Your browser is probably timing out. The web page is located on a virtual
web server named "ICE" at Dynamite.com.au
"ICE" is very a propos, because the server is practically frozen. When I
pinged the machine at 203.17.154.34, three out of four packets were dropped.
I was eventually able to connect to the web page in IE 5.5, but the download
freezes. I was trying to download the entire 490KB file, which should
normally take about three minutes. IE download told me that it would take
over 17 hours, so I quit.I don't know the time difference between Malaysia and Australia, but you
might try connecting when it is the middle of the night in Australia.Good luck,
Ed"Yap Yok Foo" wrote in message
news:hv9avscs1egfo5s0b...@4ax.com...
Uncle Yap,Perchance you included the final full stop in the address -- see above.
DO NOT DO THAT! You should have no problems if you avoid it -- I just
tried it.Good luck,
sj-- Surendar Jeyadev jey...@wrc.xerox.com