Alfred Mosher Butts
Encyclopedia
Alfred Mosher Butts was an American
architect
and the inventor of the board game
Scrabble
in 1938.
and graduated in 1917.
He was also an amateur artist and six of his drawings were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
.
and bingo
; move games such as chess
and checkers; and word games such as anagram
s. A resident of Jackson Heights, it was there that the game of Scrabble was invented.
Butts decided to create a game that utilized both chance and skill by combining elements of anagram
s and crossword puzzle
s, a popular pastime of the 1920s. Players would draw seven lettered tiles from a pool and then attempt to form words from their seven letters. A key to the game was Butts' analysis of the English language. Butts studied the front page of The New York Times
to calculate how frequently each letter of the alphabet
was used. He then used each letter's frequency to determine how many of each letter he would include in the game. He included only four "S" tiles so that the ability to make words plural would not make the game too easy.
Butts initially called the game "Lexiko
", but later changed the name to "Criss Cross Words", after considering "It", and began to look for a buyer. The game makers he originally contacted rejected the idea, but Butts was tenacious. Eventually, he sold the rights to entrepreneur
and game-lover James Brunot. Brunot made a few minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game "Scrabble", a word meaning "to grope frantically" [From the Dutch "Schrabben," to scrape or scratch]
In 1948, the game was trademarked and James Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgington, Connecticut
, into a Scrabble factory. In 1949, the Brunots made 2,400 sets, but lost $450. The game, however, was steadily gaining popularity, helped along by orders from Macy's department store. By 1952, the Brunots could no longer keep up with demand and licensed game maker Selchow and Righter
to market and distribute the game
One hundred and fifty million sets have been sold worldwide and between one and two million sets are sold each year in North America alone.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and the inventor of the board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
in 1938.
Personal life
Alfred Mosher Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on April 13, 1899. Born to Allison Butts and Arrie Elizabeth Mosher. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a high school teacher. Alfred attended Poughkeepsie High SchoolPoughkeepsie High School
Poughkeepsie High School is the public high school in the city of Poughkeepsie, NY. It is categorized as an inner city school district as a result of the high percentage of students living in low-income households...
and graduated in 1917.
He was also an amateur artist and six of his drawings were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
.
Scrabble
In the early 1930s after working as an architect but now unemployed, Butts set out to design a board game. He studied existing games and found that games fell into three categories: number games such as diceDice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
and bingo
Bingo (US)
Bingo is a game of chance played with randomly drawn numbers which players match against numbers that have been pre-printed on 5x5 matrices. The matrices may be printed on paper, card stock or electronically represented and are referred to as cards. Many versions conclude the game when the first...
; move games such as chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
and checkers; and word games such as anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
s. A resident of Jackson Heights, it was there that the game of Scrabble was invented.
Butts decided to create a game that utilized both chance and skill by combining elements of anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
s and crossword puzzle
Crossword Puzzle
For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
s, a popular pastime of the 1920s. Players would draw seven lettered tiles from a pool and then attempt to form words from their seven letters. A key to the game was Butts' analysis of the English language. Butts studied the front page of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
to calculate how frequently each letter of the alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
was used. He then used each letter's frequency to determine how many of each letter he would include in the game. He included only four "S" tiles so that the ability to make words plural would not make the game too easy.
Butts initially called the game "Lexiko
Lexiko
Lexiko was a word game invented by Alfred Butts. It was a precursor of Scrabble. The name comes from the Greek lexicos, meaning of "words."...
", but later changed the name to "Criss Cross Words", after considering "It", and began to look for a buyer. The game makers he originally contacted rejected the idea, but Butts was tenacious. Eventually, he sold the rights to entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
and game-lover James Brunot. Brunot made a few minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game "Scrabble", a word meaning "to grope frantically" [From the Dutch "Schrabben," to scrape or scratch]
In 1948, the game was trademarked and James Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgington, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, into a Scrabble factory. In 1949, the Brunots made 2,400 sets, but lost $450. The game, however, was steadily gaining popularity, helped along by orders from Macy's department store. By 1952, the Brunots could no longer keep up with demand and licensed game maker Selchow and Righter
Selchow and Righter
Selchow and Righter was a 19th century Bay Shore, New York game manufacturer best known for the games Parcheesi and Scrabble.It dates back to 1867when it was founded as E.G. Selchow & Co...
to market and distribute the game
One hundred and fifty million sets have been sold worldwide and between one and two million sets are sold each year in North America alone.