The History of Scrabble

Scrabble was invented in 1938 by Alfred Mosher Butts, an unemployed architect from New York. They based his new game on a earlier game they had invented called "Lexico" and called it "Criss-Crosswords". They tabulated the set of Scrabble words and the word frequencies himself - these have mostly remained unchanged. Regrettably for Butts, this first incarnation of Scrabble was not successful - they created a few sets himself, but could not discover a manufacturer who would stock the game.

0 years later a fan of the original game decided that they desired to try selling the idea himself. James Brunot from Connecticut had bought of the few original sets of "Criss-Crosswords" and loved the game. They license the rights to manufacture the game from Alfred Mosher Butts, whom they would pay a royalty on every set sold.

Scrabble is of the most popular relatives board games, loved by generations since it was created in 1938. This editorial delves in to the history of the game, and details the way it grew from it is humble origins in to a world famous game.

They simplified the rules, edited the Scrabble word list, adjusted the position of a number of the high-point squares and renamed the game "Scrabble".

Initially Brunot produced around six,400 sets of Scrabble but did not make a profit, and it looked like Scrabble might be doomed to failure except for a blessed coincidence. The president of Macy's department store happened to be introduced to the game on holiday and was impressed. When they returned to his store and realized that they didn't stock the game they placed a giant order from James Brunot and within a year it was the 'must have' game.

Over the years manufacturers have introduced different variations on the Scrabble game, including different Scrabble dictionaries for match play, and variations such as travel Scrabble, Scrabble trickster, and pocket Scrabble.

James Brunot's small operation didn't have the capacity to produce the kind of volume that the markets now demanded, so they licensed the game again to a bigger New York manufacturer. In 1955 the Spears licensed the game on the market in the United Kingdom and Australia. Throughout the years the rights have changed hands due to companies being bought or going bankrupt, and it is now owned by Hasbro.

Dave Shimoda is a scrabble enthusiast who created Scrabble Word Finder - A site full of Scrabble articles, tips and word lists.