Biography
Reagle made his first crossword when he was six years old and sold a puzzle to The New York Times at age 16, a feat that made him the youngest published Times puzzle constructor at the time.
Reagle first competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1979, its second year, and placed third. He has submitted a puzzle to the contest since 1980 and now serves as a tournament judge and a commentator for the tournament's finals.
In the early 1980s Reagle began submitting crossword puzzles to Dell crossword magazine, Games magazine, and Margaret Farrar's Simon & Schuster books. He regarded crossword-making as more of a hobby, working as a television scriptwriter by day and a film scriptwriter by night. In 1985 he was contracted to produce a regular Sunday crossword for the San Fracisco Examiner's new Sunday magazine. Three years later, he went into syndication.
In the 1990s Reagle was regarded as one of the top producers of a new type of crossword puzzle: "less stodgy and more hip". This trend was encouraged by The New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz, who sought to appeal to a wider and younger readership with "pop culture references ... humorous word play, and ... unique and clever themes".
In 2011 Reagle donated his expertise to produce an awareness-building campaign for the Alzheimer's Foundation of America. Reagle created the National Brain Game Challenge, an online contest featuring a Sunday crossword that contains clue to solve a secret message. Cash prizes, including a first prize of $25,000, are awarded in two categories, "casual solver" and "puzzle professional".
Reagle is one of the few crossword constructors who makes a living solely through puzzlemaking, as he retains all rights to his puzzles and reprints them in booklets that he sells under his own imprint, PuzzleWorks. With the assistance of his wife, Marie Haley, he has published 16 volumes of his Sunday crosswords, which he sells from his website. Merl and Marie make their home in the Tampa Bay, Florida area.
Read more about this topic: Merl Reagle
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