Matching Minds With Sondheim
Matching Mind With Sondheim is a journey into the rich but largely unknown playful passions of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most influential contributors to American musical theater.
From his teenage years sending puzzles to the New York Times and board games to Milton Bradley until his final years designing treasure hunts and visiting escape rooms, Sondheim spent a long life pursuing his fascination with puzzle invention and game design.
For the first time, Matching Minds will introduce readers to what Sondheim described as his “puzzler’s mind” – through his cryptic crosswords, murder mysteries, treasure hunts, parlor games, and more – to better understand the man, his work, and (if they accept the challenge) themselves.
The book draws from over eighty years of Sondheim’s activities, collecting his extremely rare and never-publicly-seen puzzles and game designs, scores of original interviews with the celebrity friends who played them, deep dives into Sondheim-related archives from around the country (such as over 100 hours of interviews at Yale University that only became available this year), and analysis from both puzzle designers and theater professionals from around the world.
Matching Minds will do more than describe Sondheim’s work – it will allow readers to match minds with the master by attempting to solve some of Sondheim’s best puzzles and provide the materials and instructions for bringing his games into their own homes.
It will be a must for all theater fans, a delight to puzzle and game lovers, and a fascination for general interest readers. After Matching Minds, Sondheim and his musical creations will never be thought of the same way again.
(check out the mention of the book by the New York Times from December 2022)
What do you think? Worth including these images in my book? There is a moment in 2020 when Sondheim tells Andrew Parr that he has been reading Games magazine his entire life. Would it be interesting to illustrate that point with his first and last puzzles (done in pencil) that he did in the publication? Please share your thought in the comments (as I can’t include everything).
The first one, from 1981, is from a puzzle by Will Shortz, called Through-the-House Treasure Hunt. Give it a shot the Sondheim way - he used the pencil to alphabetize the words but then read the columns in his head. I will paste the solution at the bottom of this post.
The last one, from 2021 (forty years later), was by Bob Stigger, called All Points Bulletin. It was a clever cryptic in which the Count (I presume from Sesame Street) stole nine of the clues (“9 clues. 9 wonderful clues.”) leaving behind for each a number pointing to the answer. Sondheim loved math games, so combined with cryptics this must have been a delight. I will include the answer to the crossword not because I think you can solve it without its clues but so you can decipher his handwriting (if that’s what you’re in to).
He was also clearly delighted with this issue as in his collection of 285 issues this is the only one of which he owned two copies. What made this one special? This is the issue that contained his interview with Andrew Parr.
Why was this his last issue with a penciled puzzled? While he was meticulous in storing his collection, the year of 2021 is oddly missing most of its issues. So this May 2021 issue is the last in his collection that arrived during his life (the subscription itself continued for some time after, as they tend to do).
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Answer: Northwest corner of bedroom carpet
#Sondheim #StephenSondheim #WillShortz #Puzzles #Handwriting
Pat D’Amico is a social services marketing professional. He is also a Sondheim fan, a mensch, and an accidental owner of many a lot from the recent Doyle Sondheim Estate auction. With each online bid he thought he lost and it wasn’t until the next day, when he received a five figure invoice, that he realized in fact he had just purchased 5 lots of auction items including 2 antique games and 200 game/puzzle book.
Since then he has gifted or donated about 15% of the books (full disclosure: I was a recipient of many of those, which are now included in my book). He said: “Giving some of this haul away has been the most fun and rewarding part of all of this!” Now, Pat has made a web site sharing all of the items that remain to get them into the hands of Sondheim fans like himself (and recoup some of the costs). A few are priced at their projected market rate while most are priced for those who told him they “never stood a chance” at the auction or “could never afford to bid”.
That means you’ll find both games for thousands of dollars but also many books for $100.
Pat has made his web site available as of TODAY! But here’s the catch. This is not an auction. It is also not a web store. The last thing Pat wants is a collector to buy these up just to turn around and put them back on the market. Pat, instead, just wants to give Sondheim fans the same pleasure he has felt owning a piece of history.
Look for the contact form in the main navigation. Look for the item you want, tell Pat what it would mean for you to own it, and let him know who sent you! Pat will then use a secret method (no AIs involved) to decide who will receive which items.
Consider this the sequel to Doyle’s auction, this time titled: “Estate Sale 2: For the Rest of Us”.
I am happy to help spread the word about Pat’s efforts because of his sincerity in getting game and puzzle items from Sondheim’s collection into the hands of fans who will truly appreciate having them. Look in my bio for the link.
#puzzles #games #crypticcrossword #stephensondheim #sondheim
Games magazine was NOT the only periodical in the Doyle’s lot containing Sondheim’s puzzle and game magazines. Most, in fact, were British publications, such as Games & Puzzles (headquartered in London) which initially ran from 1972-1981. Sondheim appears to have subscribed to and cataloged every issue.
I learned of G&P during my research for two reasons. 1. Sondheim ran a personal add seeking an out-of-print board game (more on that in my book) and 2. it contained the first substantive article about his interest in puzzles.
That article was written by Eric Chalkley, aka Apex, a noted cryptic crossword setter and puzzling peer of Sondheim’s. In this piece, Chalkley describes his relationship with both Derrick Somerset Macnutt (Ximenes)—a leading cryptic setter—and Sondheim. His title took inspiration from the recent Sondheim review which opened the year earlier in England, Side by Side by Sondheim.
However, when I received a copy of this article from Derek Harrison @dxharrison (founder of the Crossword Centre web) it had no date attached. However, with Sondheim’s collection now in the hands of Andrew Parr @lego_nerd_puzzles, I could flip through every page of every issue until I found it. And I did.
February, 1977 is when this article appeared, expanding awareness at least within the British world of puzzlers that they had a famous admirer among them.
What I also learned (when I held the issue ABOUT Sondheim that was OWNED BY Sondheim) was that there was a second page! Chalkley had constructed a cryptic crossword inspired by Side by Side. How fun! (Let’s see if I can fit it in my book.)
And yes, isn’t that illustration adorable? Chalkley occasionally punched up his crosswords with drawings, in this case a conductor swinging a baton with one hand and, with the other, working a crossword.
#Sondheim #StephenSondheim #ximenes #crypticcrossword
When puzzle designer Andrew Parr @lego_nerd_puzzles won Lot 320 ("Runs of periodicals including Games & Puzzles Magazine and related publications") he was as surprised as anyone to find it contained one of these rare gems.
Andrew asked me to shared this here: "I’m selling Sondheim’s personal copy of his book. Interested buyers can contact me through Insta."
Again, contact Andrew, NOT ME. Good luck!
#Sondheim #StephenSondheim @nymag
After his earlier years working through Games magazine in his mind, Sondheim began to mark his issues with pencils, solving a wide array of puzzles. Most were word puzzles, but not all. Many, like this, were also logic puzzles.
How did YOU do? I used Photoshop to remove his writing then shared the original pages (as I photographed them), so you can see both the solution and how Sondheim did (which are always one and the same).
I find it exciting to see his actual handwriting, most likely with his Eberhard-Faber Blackwing pencils (the same ones used to write his lyrics, the same ones which--across two lots-- sold for north of $10,000), as I imagine him sitting back in his home to take a break immersed in some delightful brain teasers.
These pencil markings are now precious artifacts of his mind at work.
(Big thanks to Andrew Parr @lego_nerd_puzzles for supplying access to the issue)
#puzzles #Sondheim #StephenSondheim
Can I tell you how thrilled I was to learn that ARGnet Insider was touting Matching Minds?!!
ARGs - alternative reality games - started
with the promotional project The Beast for Spielberg`s film A.I. (2001) I was not only deeply involved with it, as a player, but ended up on CNN talking about it. I have loved ARGs and the broader genre of immersive entertainment ever since. So it felt like I`m moving in the right direction when I read today in their newsletter:
"Sondheim`s Love of Puzzles, Documented: - Much thanks to Sandy Weisz for highlighting my newest obsession Matching Minds With Sondheim in his monthly puzzle newsletter, Signals. Barry Joseph acquired Sondheim`s collection of puzzles and games, and has been publicly poring through the archives. This post about how a Games Magazine paper pop-up puzzle inspired a challenge in one of Sondheim`s own puzzle hunts is a perfect example of why the account should be an "insta"-follow."
Thanks for the shout-out!
#Sondheim #stephenSondheim #CloudmakersFTW
Every end-of-year issue of Games magazine has lists the top games of the year. Pick up any issue within Sondheim’s collection and you will surely find this: checkmarks and circle around games that caught his eye.
When Sondheim was interviewed in the fall of 1982, he told Games reporter, Dick Schaap that he solved one or two puzzles per issue. But here’s the thing: I have now flipped through every page within Sondheim’s collection from 1977 until that interview. And you know how many puzzles I found marked up by Sondheim?
Zero.
Not one. What can we take from that? Sondheim often bragged that he solved complex word puzzles in his head. When I interviewed people who knew him, I often head a version of this (here told by his friend Perry Granoff):
“I once was doing a crossword puzzle on the plane. And he was sitting next to me. And he goes, ‘You`re cheating.’ I said, ‘What do you mean I`m cheating?’ He said, ‘You`re writing it down.’”
As a researcher, how could I find evidence that Sondheim actually did this on his own? Now, with his personal issues, we have our smoking gun.
But wait, you might ask: How can we know he even read these issues? Because - and now we get to this post’s photo - those issues are FULL of pencil marks from Sondheim, just not on the puzzles. Instead they are marking new games and books that caught his eye. It was only in LATER years that the magazine’s puzzles would receive his pencil as well.
But wait, there’s more. Why did I choose THIS circled game to feature? The Fool’s Errand was a 1987 computer game by Cliff Johnson. It is a meta-puzzle game with storytelling, visual puzzles, and a cryptic treasure map. Sondheim discovered it in 1989 (a few months before Games featured it and Sondheim circled it), reached out to Johnson and, long story short, if you look at the credits to Johnson’s next game, 3 in Three, you will see Sondheim’s name appear, in thanks for his time spent playtesting it.
Btw, the “M” at the end of the review means the game is played on a Macintosh, which is what Sondheim used after Apple gave him one as thanks for appearing in their 1984 Annual Report.)
#TheFoolsErrand #3inThree #Sondheim #StephenSondheim
Thank you Sandy (@mysteryleague) for including us in your recent Signals newsletter and a big WELCOME to everyone in your community checking this out for the first time. I hope you enjoy your visit and return often.
#sondheim #stephensondheim #puzzles #community
In April of 1994, Games magazine ran a contest: Mask and Ye Shall Receive. The “mask” in question was a paper pop-out, to be placed over the printed grid. The information to be received, when placed properly, was a location in the United States. I believe over 10,000 readers submitted the correct answer.
Was Sondheim one of them? We’ll never know. But we DO know that he tried - this is from his copy of Games magazine; the mask was popped-out and attached to his issue with a paperclip.
We can also surmise that he solved it, as one year later he incorporated the concept into his treasure hunt as part of the fundraiser for the Millay Art Colony, relying on the same solution used by the Games’ content designer. That designer, in fact, was his friend, Will Shortz!
Then, in 2013, Sondheim used it once again for the treasure hunt held for a private birthday party at New York City Center.
If you don’t notice the “trick” at the heart of this puzzle by flipping through the images (created by me through various placements of the mask to demonstrate how the puzzle works), I will put the answer for you in my book. What I will say is that it perfectly sums up Sondheim’s style of puzzles - the answer is simple, hidden in plain sight, at first appears impossible, is designed to distract you from the solution, and requires lateral thinking to solve. It also takes its design inspiration from the brilliance of others.
I took too took inspiration from this design of Sondheim’s, in fact, if you recall my recent posts about puzzle bookmarks to promote next year’s publication of Matching Minds. After struggling to create my own grid and (more commonly called) grill puzzle, I was blown away to open Sondheim’s 1994 issue of Games to discover this source of one of his most remarkable puzzle designs.
(Big thanks to Andrew Parr @lego_nerd_puzzles for supplying access to the issues)
#Sondheim #StephenSondheim #treasurehunts #grillandgridpuzzle #WillShortz #Zipcodes
