Lester Keene author page

Lester Keene was one of the most prolific constructors of the early years of the Times crossword. Through 1947, Keene had 35 crosswords in the Times, the most of any constructor at the time.* He died that same year.

Keene's 35 crosswords were all Sundays (daily puzzles did not begin until 1950). Even today — over 75 years after his last puzzle appeared — he ranks in the top 40 of the most prolific Sunday constructors of all time. He was also the most-published constructor in each of the years 1944 (9), 1945 (13), and 1946 (9).

Keene was born in 1874 in Memphis, Tennessee. By the late 1890s, he had settled in New York. He managed a Manhattan chemical company — Keene Chemical — for many years that he ran with his cousin.

In 1916, he married Meta Fuller, who had previously been married to the author Upton Sinclair. Lester and Meta had one child, Lester, Jr.

The family lived in New York in the 1920s. They later moved to Florida, where Keene worked for a credit-rating agency. He retired in the mid-1930s, settling in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Keene was an avid chess player. He began playing at age 10. He was active in the Manhattan Chess Club and later served as president of the St. Petersburg Chess Club. In 1917, he faced the world-class master David Jankowski in a game that was chronicled in many outlets. (Keene, with an end-game advantage of three pawns to one knight, declined Jankowski's offer of a draw, only to lose five moves later).

Besides the Times, Keene was published in the New York Herald Tribune, with his first-ever crossword appearing there in the mid-1930s. He was also published in the film fan magazine Photoplay.

Keene died in 1947. Meta passed away in 1964. Lester Jr., who went on to have a career as an electrical engineer, died in 2009.

*Keene's count of 35 crosswords is based on puzzles published under the names Lester Keene (20), L. K. Peters (14) and L. K. Webster (1). "L.K. Peters" is presumed to be a pseudonym for Keene that Margaret Farrar employed ("L.K." being Keene's initials and "Peters" a reference to St. Petersburg, where he lived in his constructing years). "L.K Webster" is an apparent reference to Keene's initials and the dictionary.

As Will Shortz has explained, Farrar sometimes used pseudonyms for a constructor who had two puzzles published close in time. One puzzle would often appear under the constructor's actual name, and the other would have a pseudonym. In creating the aliases, Farrar often incorporated the constructor's city or street (or both) into the name. She also appears to have created pseudonyms using crossword-related terms like "Cross" and "Webster."

Another interesting fact about Keene: his wife had formerly been married to Upton Sinclair for 10 years. The Sinclair's divorce was quite the story in the society pages in 1911.