author
A. Cyril (Arthur Cyril) Pearson
1838–1916
Best remembered as a Victorian compiler of chess problems and word games, this English clergyman brought a patient, playful mind to every puzzle he published. His books mix clear instruction with the quiet pleasure of working things out.
1 Audiobook
Pictured Puzzles and Word Play A Companion to the Twentieth Century Standard Puzzle Book
by A. Cyril (Arthur Cyril) Pearson
About the author
Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, Arthur Cyril Pearson took his B.A. in 1860 and later his M.A. He served in several curacies, became rector of Drayton Parslow in Buckinghamshire from 1877 to 1886, and then returned to Springfield, Essex, where he had been born in 1838.
Under the name A. Cyril Pearson, he wrote and compiled books for readers who enjoyed structured mental challenges. His best-known work is One Hundred Chess Problems (1883), and records of his publications also show puzzle and word-play books that fit the same lively, instructive style.
He died in 1916. Reliable sources for his life are fairly sparse, but they consistently present him as both an Anglican clergyman and a devoted puzzle writer whose work reflects the Victorian taste for chess, language, and elegant recreation.