Melville House Books

Hip hip, Hurray! Scrabble is sixty years old today. Alfred Butts invented the fiendishly addictive word game in 1938, after spending days poring over The New York Times to establish the best possible point system. Originally called Criss Crosswords, the game took some time to catch on; every established game manufacturer turned it down and Butts resorted to making wooden sets by hand and distributing them to friends. Eventually a set got into the hands of James Brunel, who was slightly better at marketing than his business partner. He introduced the rule that the game starts in the middle, and gave it that all-important catchy title, Scrabble, which he trademarked in 1948. Andy McSmith reports in the Independent on the history of how it has winkled its way into our lives. The standard list of celebrity fans at the bottom is quite fun: imagine Barack Obama, Kylie Minogue, Eddie Izzard and Vladimir Nabokov sitting down for a fierce battle of wits. Who would come out on top?