07.06.08 -- Edna Ferber -- the Acrostic

Photograph of Edna Ferber from her autobiography, A Peculiar Treasure entitled “The Bernhardian Pose at Two.” The reference is to the great actress Sarah Bernhardt

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Sunday, July 6, 2008

ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon, edited by Will Shortz

Edna Ferber was a prolific and popular novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924 for So Big, the story of a woman raising a child on a truck farm outside of Chicago. Others of her best known books include Showboat (1926), Cimarron (1929), Giant (1952) and Ice Palace (1958). Showboat, about a girl's life on the floating theater of the Mississippi River, was made into a musical comedy on Broadway and three motion pictures. So Big was adapted into two films. Giant, a story of life in Texas, starred Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson on the big screen and was James Dean's last movie.

Ferber wrote two autobiographies -- A Peculiar Treasure published in 1939 and A Kind of Magic in 1963. The earlier of the two is the subject of today’s acrostic.

Quotation: ONLY AMATEURS say that they WRITE FOR THEIR OWN AMUSEMENT. WRITING IS NOT AN AMUSING OCCUPATION. IT IS A COMBINATION OF DITCH-DIGGING, MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING, TREADMILL AND CHILDBIRTH. IT MAY BE ABSORBING, exhilarating, RACKING, RELIEVING. BUT AMUSING? NEVER!

Author’s name and the title of the work: FERBER A PECULIAR TREASURE

The defined words: FIVESTAR (A. Wartime-only rank for a general [hyph.]); ENCOMIUM (B. Tribute delivered oratorical); RUGBYFIELD (C. Venue for a team like New Zealand’s All Blacks [2 wds.]); BUNGALOW (D. Arts and Crafts house style); EMIGRANT (E. Transplant in a foreign land); REDLIGHT (F. Something illegal to run [wds.]); ANTACID (G. Soother for an upset stomach); POLITICS (H. “War without bloodshed,” per Mao); ENTOMB (I. Place in a vault); CAROTENE (J. Vitamin A. precursor); UNKNOWN (K. “x” in an equation; yet to be discovered); LONGMARCH (L. Epic 1930s flight of some 6,000 miles [2 wds.]); INHIBIT (M. Suppress, restrain); ARMAGNAC (N. Brandy from the Gascony region of France); RINGDOVE (O. Pigeon with white neck patches); TALISMAN (P. Object having magical powers); RABBITRUN (Q . 1960 novel in which Harry Angstrom first appears [2 wds.]); EGOTISM (R. Case of cephalic swelling?); S. “Time is the only critic without AMBITION” (Steinbeck); SWINISH (T. Like Porky Pig or Swift’s Yahoos); UNIONSUIT (U. One-piece long underwear with a button-up flap in the rear [2 wds.]); RIGIDITY (V. Refusal to bend, intransigence); ENIGMATIC (W. Puzzling, hard to fathom).

Edna Ferber very well may have enjoyed this acrostic, subject aside, for it is another excellent composition from that dynamic duo of Cox & Rathvon with the maestro of words, Will Shortz, conducting the fine art of crosswords from the hallowed halls of the Gray Lady.

"Life cannot defeat a writer who is in love with writing; for life itself is a writer's love until death." -- Edna Ferber.

Click on image to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at

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