With tenacity and vision, Alfred Mosher Butts (1899–1993) created the world’s most beloved word game—Scrabble—after 18 years of trial and error.

“The will to persevere,” said broadcast pioneer David Sarnoff, “is often the difference between failure and success.”

On his journey, Butts was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Gold-Bug to study English letter frequency using the New York Times. He assigned values and carved 100 wooden tiles by hand.

An architect by trade with a passion for crosswords, Butts conceived the game in 1931 during the Great Depression. In 1947, he sold the rights to James Brunot, who named it “Scrabble,” meaning “to grope frantically.”

As football coach Mike Ditka once said, “You are never a loser until you quit trying.” For Alfred Butts, perseverance wasn’t just a strategy—it was a quiet act of faith. What began as one man’s handcrafted tiles of hope became a worldwide invitation to think deeper, dream bigger, and spell with joy.

Today, Scrabble is played in 29 languages, including Braille, a legacy that continues to connect hearts across the globe—one word at a time.