In Matching Minds with Sondheim, Barry Joseph accomplishes a truly remarkable feat: he reintroduces us to someone we thought we already knew.

Stephen Sondheim was not only the composer and lyricist famous for musicals like West Side Story and Into the Woods: as Joseph painstakingly recounts in the book, he was also a bona fide puzzle freak – a dedicated player and designer of games. In these meticulously researched pages, Joseph brings to light little-known episodes from Sondheim’s life – from late-night game soirees to massively multiplayer puzzle adventures Sondheim designed for his friends.

Did you know Sondheim designed three board games that trace the life of Leonard Bernstein? Or that his little-known murder mystery film The Last of Sheila is really a game within a game within a game? Or that he secretly longed to be a designer of video games?

Dancing gracefully through important episodes in Sondheim’s history, Barry Joseph’s delightfully written book weaves together his life, his work in theater, and his deep love for games. The chapters are bursting with anecdotes and interviews with personalities from every corner of culture – from stars like Meryl Streep and Sarah Jessica Parker, to famous game designers like Will Shortz and Sid Sackson, to unexpected appearances from figures like graphic designer Milton Glazier (famous for the “I LOVE NY” logo).

For lovers of his musical theater, you will discover a new and marvelous side of Stephen Sondheim. For fans of games and puzzles, Joseph’s incredibly detailed accounting of Sondheim’s masterful designs will shed new light on how games are made. The book goes so far as to include the actual rules and detailed puzzle instructions for dozens of Sondheim’s games – making it not just a biography but a sourcebook and design guide to Sondheim’s creative work. And an absolute must-read for any puzzle or game designer.

Matching Minds with Sondheim tells a new and vital story of Sondheim’s life – a life of fun and adventure in puzzles and games – and in so doing gives us new ways to understand and appreciate this creative giant of musical theater.

– Eric Zimmerman, Arts Professor, NYU Game Center, and co-author of Rules of Play