Margaret Petherbridge Farrar (March 23, 1897 – June 11, 1984) was an American journalist and the first crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times (1942–1968).

[3] A lifelong resident of New York City, she attended Berkeley Institute in Brooklyn and graduated from Smith College in 1919.

[6] She subsequently described her reaction as "(taking) an oath to edit the crosswords to the essence of perfection;"[5] her puzzles eventually became more popular than Wynne's.

[7] In early 1924, Adams introduced Petherbridge to Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, who were launching a book publishing company but did not yet have any manuscripts.

[7] She left the World to raise a family and restricted her work to editing books (Simon & Schuster published about two per year).

[6][10] She used her royalties from the crossword books, which her father had invested on her behalf, to underwrite Farrar's publishing business.

[11][12] After the United States joined World War II, the New York Times' Sunday editor sent a memo, attaching a letter from Farrar, urging the paper to publish a crossword puzzle.

You can’t think of your troubles while solving a crossword.”[13] Farrar returned to journalism in 1942 as founding puzzle editor of The New York Times.