(STEVEN) MILLHAUSER, EDWIN MULLHOUSE — Unlike real life, which presents us with question marks, censored passages, ... asterisks, omitted paragraphs, and numberless sequences of three dots trailing off into whiteness, biography presents an illusion of completeness.
| A. | Cosmetics, especially for actors | MAQUILLAGE |
| B. | Mushroom whose gills turn black (2 wds.) | INKYCAP |
| C. | Struggle in disagreement (2 wds.) | LOCKHORNS |
| D. | Engineer who conceived the Suez Canal | LESSEPS |
| E. | Important man, facetiously (2 wds.) | HISNIBS |
| F. | Like "time" and "tide," to a poet | ASSONANT |
| G. | Aristocratic class (2 wds.) | UPPERCRUST |
| H. | Honeybunch (2 wds.) | SWEETIEPIE |
| I. | Author of "Billy Bathgate" (3 wds.) | ELDOCTOROW |
| J. | 1981 film with 12 Oscar nominations | REDS |
| K. | Bird bearing coveted plumes | EGRET |
| L. | Insomniac's irritant | DRIP |
| M. | Destination of a surfer (2 wds.) | WEBSITE |
| N. | Isle described by W. B. Yeats | INNISFREE |
| O. | To the ___ (smartly) | NINES |
| P. | What "outgrabe," according to Carroll (2 wds.) | MOMERATHS |
| Q. | In need of grooming | UNKEMPT |
| R. | Big moment for NASA | LIFTOFF |
| S. | Composer of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" | LOESSER |
| T. | Remain defiant or inflexible (2 wds.) | HANGTOUGH |
| U. | Stealthily, secretly (4 wds.) | ONTHEQT |
| V. | Like the rarest of triple plays | UNASSISTED |
| W. | Laurel with an aromatic bark | SASSAFRAS |
| X. | Jazzman known as "Fatha" (2 wds.) | EARLHINES |