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July 17, 2026 
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| Mathieu Labrecque |
The Next Generation of Constructors
Last week I wrote about our oldest known crossword constructors, and this week I’ll get into some of the youngest crossword constructors. Harrison Walden is the current record-holder for the youngest person to have a daily crossword puzzle run in The New York Times. At just 8 years old, he had his first puzzle in the Times, as a collaboration with his father, Byron Walden. The elder Mr. Walden is a prolific constructor himself, so it’s understandable if you think this doesn’t quite count. Regardless, Harrison went on to construct a puzzle by himself at age 13 — 4,882 days old, to be exact — so whether or not you count a collaboration with an adult, he still holds the record. Before that, the record had been held for eight years by Daniel Larsen, who was also 13, but 16 days older than Harrison — 4,898 days — at the time of publication.
Another puzzle by two young constructors ran in the Kids section of the Times last year. Its sibling constructors, Kaela and Nate Curry, were just 8 and 10 at the time. Because it’s not a daily crossword, it isn’t listed on xwordinfo.com’s list of youngest constructors. However, it did run in The New York Times in print and online, so you might still consider them to be the youngest people to have published a crossword in the Times.
I corresponded over email with Philip Koski, a constructor and hobby genealogist who compiled the lists of both the youngest and the oldest constructors, and he shared some anecdotes about young crossword constructors throughout history. In 1924, Simon & Schuster published a book of crossword puzzles, and one of them was by Francis Cavallon Jr., who was just 14 at the time. The editors in the book note that “Mr. Cavallon is probably our youngest contributor, boasting as he does only fourteen summers.” This wasn’t Francis’ first puzzle, though — he had a puzzle run in The Milwaukee Sentinel when he was just 12.
Young people have been making puzzles for over 100 years, and with the tools available today, I imagine it won’t be too long before there’s another record for the youngest constructor.
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| Grid by Coz Berlin/Clues written by Christina Iverson |
For expert hints on today’s puzzle, read the Wordplay column.
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Easy vs. Hard
In today’s daily Friday puzzle, 19-Across has the clue [Does as a group?]. Constructors and editors alike enjoy playing with the two pronunciations of “does.” In this case, you should read it with a long O sound. For Easy Mode, I went with [Doe or buck], which is a little more straightforward.
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P.S. The answer to Easy vs. Hard is DEER.
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