Harriot T. Cooke author page

Harriot Cooke was one of the first female constructors published in the Times. Her first Times crossword appeared on December 20, 1942. She was a veteran constructor by then, having been published in other outlets as early as 1928. She had ten puzzles total in the Times, with her last appearing in 1946, the same year she died.

Harriot Stoddert Turner was born in Spring Hill, Tennessee, in 1871. Her great-grandfather, Benjamin Stoddert, was the first Secretary of the Navy, appointed by John Adams in 1798.

Her family moved to Missouri when she was a child. She graduated from the Mary Institute, a school for girls in St. Louis. In 1893, she married Hedley V. Cooke, an attorney. They briefly lived in Denver before moving to New Jersey, where they raised three children.

Harriot was active in politics. In the 1920s, she was president of the New Jersey League of Women's Voters. She worked to mobilize women voters to support the 1928 Presidential campaign of Al Smith.

She was also a writer. Her works included book reviews, essays, and poems in publications like The New Republic and the New York Herald. She also wrote a series of primers on local, state, and national politics.

In the 1930s, she and Hedley moved to Washington, DC. She died there in 1946 at the age of 75.

Note: having been born in 1871, she's one of the earliest-born constructors in the Times. She's 27 years older than Farrar and about 45 years older than Maleska.