Louis Shields author page

Louis Shields was among Margaret Farrar's go-to roster of constructors in 1942, the inaugural year of the Times crossword. His crosswords appeared four times that year, second only to the legendary Charles Erlenkotter and tied with Alvin Ashby, a star constructor of the era, and Jack Luzzatto, one of the most prolific constructors ever.

Mr. Shields, a native of Poland, was also notable as one of the first non-U.S. born constructors published in the Times. He is likely second in that category, behind the Dutch-born J.C. Doesburg, who was published a month ahead of Mr. Shields in the spring of 1942.

Mr. Shields, whose last name was originally Scheidlauer, was born in 1881 in the Russian-controlled part of Poland. His father, Meyer, was a cigar maker. His mother, Katherine, was a homemaker. The family emigrated to the U.S. in 1884, arriving in New York and settling on the Lower East Side and later moving to East Harlem.

By 1900, Louis's father had passed away. To help support the family, Louis, the oldest of five, worked as a 19-year old bookkeeper. In the decades that followed, he continued working as a bookkeeper at various furniture and clothing companies.

Mr. Shields is among the earliest-born Times constructors, a generation that also includes Mr. Doesburg (1869), Harriot Cook (1871), Mabel Daggett (1873), Thomas Meekin (1878) and Mr. Erlenkotter (1881, within three months of Mr. Shields). They were already in their 30s and 40s when crosswords were invented in 1913 (Mr. Shields was 34). When the Times finally launched its crossword, they were in their 60s and 70s.

Mr. Shields' crosswords appeared in other outlets as early as the mid-1930s. In the Times, he had nine known crosswords, all in the 1940s. He also constructed several diagramless puzzles appearing in the Times and elsewhere.

While the documentary record is not definitive, he appears to have passed away in the mid-to-late 1940s.