LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Well, that was easy (assuming you avoided one trap). 580 solvers found LITTLE WOMEN as last week’s famous American novel. The four main characters of the book, sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, begin the four theme entries (oldest to youngest):

17-a MEGALOMANIA

29-a JOYRIDING

43-a BE THE BEST

57-a AMYL NITRITE

So LITTLE WOMEN it was, but what about that one trap? 13 entrants submitted Amy Tan’s 1989 novel THE JOY LUCK CLUB, due to a non-trivial number of references to it in the puzzle: 1) the title “Book Club”; 2) JOY in JOYRIDING; 3) AMY in AMYL NITRITE; and 4) LUCKY at 18-d. True, that leaves two of the four theme entries unexplained and LUCKY in random fill is arbitrary, but it was enough to make it look plausible for a Week 1. Tricky, but totally unintended by me (and unnoticed until entries started coming in).

PatXC recalls:

My favorite book from childhood! Thanks for the memories.

My wife’s favorite childhood book as well.

cybergoober writes:

I am Alcott up after March’s 4-for-5.

jimakin writes:

March madness once again extends into April.

DIS says:

Going from week 5 to week 1 almost hurts, like trying to throw a wiffle ball really fast.

marpocky remembered one way to make Week 1 tougher, if it’s a challenge you seek:

Every week 1 I try to do the puzzle using only the across clues. I didn’t quite finish it this time, but I got enough to get the meta. Yay!

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 580 correct entries received, is A.A.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a group of people skilled in language. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (2,025 members now!) here.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.