Introduction
Today's National Post Cryptic Crossword (NP 20220226) from Cox & Rathvon is a bit of a literary tour de force. I've included a brief snippet about each writer in the review with a link to the full article from which the information is excerpted. To see the full source article, simply click on the accompanying reference number.The puzzle will be posted on the blog next Saturday.
I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.
Solution to Today's Puzzle
Falcon's experience
┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐
███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘
Legend:
█ - solved without assistance
█ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools
█ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools
█ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools
█ - solved but without fully parsing the clue
█ - yet to be solved
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| Symbols and Markup Conventions | |
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| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog. | |
Across
| 1a | Aisle crowd roughed up // playwright (5,5) |
{OSCAR WILDE}* — anagram of (roughed up) AISLE CROWD
Oscar Wilde[7] (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. He became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray,
| 6a | Jot // end of novella by Wolfe (4) |
A|TOM — A (end [final letter] of novellA) + TOM (Wolfe)
Tom Wolfe[7] (1930–2018) was an American author and journalist widely known for his association with New Journalism, a style of news writing and journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s that incorporated literary techniques. In 1979, he published the influential book The Right Stuff about the Mercury Seven astronauts.
| 9a | Novelist // agitated for rest (7) |
FORSTER* — anagram of (agitated) FOR REST
E. M. Forster[7] (1879–1970) was an English fiction writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examine class difference and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 20 separate years but was never awarded the honour.
| 10a | British writer // heard song (7) |
CARROLL~ — sounds like (heard) CAROL (song)
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll[7], was an English author, illustrator, poet, mathematician, photographer, teacher, and inventor. His most notable works are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).
| 12a | Existentialist // school grounds having no piano (5) |
CAM||US — CAM[
Albert Camus[7] (1913–1960) was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.
| 13a | Greek philosopher // transformed to realist (9) |
ARISTOTLE* — anagram of (transformed) TO REALIST
Aristotle[7] (384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.
| 14a | Starts in again /with/ career write-ups (7) |
RESUMES — double definition; resumes and resumés
| 16a | Cheer received by plucky // children’s author (7) |
G(RAH)AME — RAH (cheer) contained in (received by) GAME (plucky)
Kenneth Grahame[7] (1859–1932) was a Scottish writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature, as well as The Reluctant Dragon (1898).
| 18a | Hurry and stop // novelist (7) |
RUSH|DIE — RUSH (hurry) + (and) DIE (stop)
Sir Salman Rushdie[7] is a British-American novelist and essayist of Indian descent. His 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses provoked protests and death threats from Muslims, including a fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran.
| 20a | Simple structure houses average // dramatist (7) |
SHE(PAR)D — SHED (simple structure) containing (houses) PAR (average)
Sam Shepard[7] (1943–2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won ten Obie Awards (Off-Broadway Theater Awards) for writing and directing, the most by any writer or director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff.
| 22a | Proper cheer with the sixth Italian penman (5,4) |
PRIM|O LE|VI — PRIM (proper) + OLE (cheer) + VI (the sixth; as in Scottish king James VI)
Primo Levi[7] (1919–1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works include If This Is a Man (1947, published as Survival in Auschwitz in the United States), his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and The Periodic Table (1975), linked to qualities of the elements, which the Royal Institution named the best science book ever written.
| 24a | Neighbourhood covered by Italo Calvino (5) |
_LO|CAL_ — hidden in (covered by) ItaLO CALvino
Italo Calvino[7] (1923–1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). Admired in Britain, Australia and the United States, he was the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death.
| 25a | Peasant altered // segment of verse (7) |
ANAPEST* — anagram of (altered) PEASANT
In poetry, an anapest[5] is a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable.
| 26a | Acting like pigs // love writing (7) |
O|INKING — O (love; nil score in tennis) + INKING (writing)
| 27a | Pronounced // article penned by Caesar (4) |
S(A)ID — A ([indefinite] article) contained in (penned by) SID (Caesar; American comic actor and writer Sid Caesar[7] (1922–2014))
| 28a | British author, in the morning, getting into cocktails (6,4) |
MARTIN (AM)IS — AM (in the morning) contained in (getting into) MARTINIS (cocktails)
Martin Amis[7] is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels Money (1984) and London Fields (1989).
Down
| 1d | Cop // not working with cake decorator (7) |
OFF|ICER — OFF (not working) + (with) ICER (cake decorator)
| 2d | Potters // improved crass item (9) |
CERAMISTS* — anagram of (improved) CRASS ITEM
| 3d | Authors audited // religious observances (5) |
RITES~ — sounds like (audited) WRITES
| 4d | Dorians arranged aggressive advances (7) |
INROADS* — anagram of (arranged) DORIANS
| 5d | Medic and ruler // cutting back (7) |
DOC|KING — DOC (medic) + (and) KING (ruler)
| 7d | Swimmers // run around university (5) |
TRO(U)T — TROT (run) containing (around) U(niversity)
| 8d | Fiction collected by more // Gallic playwright (7) |
MO(LIE)RE — LIE (fiction) contained in (collected by) MORE (†)
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622–1673), known by his stage name Molière[7], was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature.
| 11d | Grind // radium residue (3,4) |
RA|T RACE — RA ([chemical symbol for] radium) + TRACE (residue)
| 15d | Part of a shoe // tag’s picked up by spy (7) |
M(IDS)OLE — {ID (tag) + S ('s)} contained in (picked up by) MOLE (spy)
| 17d | Chairman’s mistaken // antigovernment credo (9) |
ANARCHISM* — anagram of (mistaken) CHAIRMANS
A subject with which we in Ottawa are all too familiar given the events of the past month.
| 18d | Cancels // tolls again? (7) |
RE||PEALS — one must likely split the solution (2-5) for the latter part of the clue
| 19d | Ancient Greek heroine // mixed up treacle (7) |
ELECTRA* — anagram of (mixed up) TREACLE
In Greek mythology, Electra[5] is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. She persuaded her brother Orestes to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (their mother’s lover) in revenge for the murder of Agamemnon.
| 20d | Leave // greeting in jet (4,3) |
S(HI)P OUT — HI (greeting) contained in (in) SPOUT (jet)
| 21d | Sled caught inside of the French // avalanches (7) |
DE(LUGE)S — LUGE (sled) contained in (caught inside) DES (of the French; French partitive article)
| 23d | I question Ari, backing up // Baghdad resident (5) |
{IRA|Q|I}< — reversal of (backing up) {I (†) + Q(uestion) + ARI (†)}
| 24d | Lenin changed // sheets (5) |
LINEN* — anagram of (changed) LENIN
Epilogue
A broad spectrum of writers appear in today's puzzle—many of whom are (or were) prominent in more than one field. Those across clues that do not specifically mention a writer, refer to a written document, a literary device, or the act of writing. The title was suggested by Peter. I wonder if—when he left the comment—he realized its particlular tie-in to two of the clues.
References
Key to Reference Sources:
[1] - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)
[15] - CollinsDictionary.com (Penguin Random House LLC/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd )
Signing off for today — Falcon
Greeting all from a cold NYC where just a few days ago I swore I saw folks wearing shorts on the street.
ReplyDeleteDid every single across clue have a reference to writing? Anyone feel all penned in by this one from C&R? Of course, for me, I needed the wordplay and the crosses to complete a few of the authors' names.
26a was fun.
25a was a new word for me. Let's hope I remember it the next time I need it.
Overall not too hard a challenge this week.
Falcon, thanks for doing double duty again.
Have a good weekend all and enjoy the week ahead.
Richard
Good morning from Winnipeg where we are hearing warnings of 'thaw' flood risk including how much our Southern neighbours in ND and MN are going to send to us down the Red River.
ReplyDeleteA very enjoyable literary challenge from C&R.
I liked 27a and 5d but I didn't think that 24d was much of an anagram.
Thanks to C&R and to Falcon.
Good morning,
ReplyDeleteEmily and Henry have the write stuff today! Highly enjoyable puzzle. It was especially nice to see 12a, 13a, and 16a drop by. I had to look up 20a and 22a after constructing the answers with the clues. I always thought of avalanches as referring to the movement of solids and the answer to 21d as referring to the movement of liquids. Have a good weekend!
Peter
Good day Falcon and friends,
ReplyDeleteNice walk down the aisles of the library today. Needed a lot of help from the down clues to get a foothold but once I got going, not too difficult. 26a was cute. LOI was 22a, needed to confirm my guess with my friend google.
Thank you for posting Falcon. Have a nice weekend everyone!
Cheers,
MG
Pigs and Pens! Totally unable to solve this offering from C&R without major help from Mr. Google and the checking letters. Liked 12a.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have an issue with 21d being an avalanche.
LOI was 6a - what was the definition, what was the wordplay, where do you lift and separate??
Ok, but I have it now. btw also liked 1d and 11d.
Have a happy, everyone! Thanks Falcon and C&R.
Good afternoon, Falcon and fellow C&R puzzlers;
ReplyDeleteI had to walk away and come back to this offering this morning - the east was a little sparse for a while plus I had some struggles with the SW... such as that well-known part of the shoe. Who am I kidding - I only was successful in the NW on my first, second, and third pass. I was grateful for the easiness of 24d as at one point, it was my only hook for the SE corner. However, it is amazing how the brain keeps working when you give it some space, and once I came back, you all were done but the pace picked up here! I laughed at 26a and liked 27a - sometimes it pays to have been around for B&W TV. LOI was 16a - for shame, but I normally don't spell that name with an "e".
Nice to see you again for coffee - please enjoy the day. Thanks as ever to Falcon and of course, C&R for clearing out the cobwebs! Best always, Heather
Whipped through the top part till I reached 16a! I too was thrown off by the e. Certainly a chuckle at 26a, was looking for something a bit more "literate", e.g. a love poem.
ReplyDeleteA good work out for the memory banks. Time for a few re-reads, maybe.
Hi Falcon,
ReplyDeleteI was, indeed, thinking of the "The Right Stuff". 6a first brought it to mind. And then when I looked up my answer to 20a it occurred to me as a description of the puzzle. I vaguely remember being struck at the time when the movie came out of the oddity of a film in which Ed Harris played John Glenn, Scott Glenn played Alan Shepard, and Sam Shepard played Chuck Yeager. By the way, it is an excellent film.
Peter