THE UNABRIDGED CROSSWORD PUZZLE WORD FINDER

A circa 1500 page thesaurus from A (meaning Ay, per, each, alpha) to Z(meaning Zed, Izzard) is a voluminous compendium of variant words not only English but also in foreign languages. Sometimes it is hard to figure the freaks (alias caprices or flams) of selection: i.e. under France- some 15 painters- such as Doyen and Lemoyne of a hundred great names which come to mind- are these more puzzle prone? There are only a handful of British poets, but there are lots of rivers- around the world country by country, insects, birds. And we're sometimes stumped by the definitions-does puzzle mean gripe? In any case, the book has just as much to offer as it lacks.