The older inhabitants of Puzzleland will remember how in the early seventies I drove the entire world crazy over a little box of movable pieces which became known as the "14-15 Puzzle".

Sam Loyd did not invent the 15 puzzle and had nothing to do with promoting or popularizing it. The puzzle craze that was created by the 15 Puzzle began in January 1880 in the US and in April in Europe. The craze ended by July 1880 and Sam Loyd’s first article about the puzzle was not published until sixteen years later, January 1896. Loyd first claimed in 1891 that he invented the puzzle, and he continued until his death a 20 year campaign to falsely take credit for the puzzle. The actual inventor was Noyes Chapman, the Postmaster of Canastota, New York, and he applied for a patent in March 1880.

Excelsior problem

Steinitz Gambit problem

Trick Donkeys problem

Back from the Klondike

Start from that heart in the center and go three steps in a straight line in any one of the eight directions, north, south, east or west, or on the bias, as the ladies say, northeast, northwest, southeast or southwest. When you have gone three steps in a straight line, you will reach a square with a number on it, which indicates the second day's journey, as many steps as it tells, in a straight line in any of the eight directions. From this new point when reached, march on again according to the number indicated, and continue on, following the requirements of the numbers reached, until you come upon a square with a number which will carry you just one step beyond the border, when you are supposed to be out of the woods and can holler all you want, as you will have solved the puzzle.

• Sam Loyd's Book of Tangram Puzzles (ISBN 0-486-22011-7): by Sam Loyd
• Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd (ISBN 0-486-20498-7): selected and edited by Martin Gardner
• More Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd (ISBN 0-486-20709-9): selected and edited by Martin Gardner
• The Puzzle King: Sam Loyd's Chess Problems and Selected Mathematical Puzzles (ISBN 1-886846-05-7): edited by Sid Pickard
• The 15 Puzzle (ISBN 1-890980-15-3): by Jerry Slocum and Dic Sonneveld
• Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks and Conundrums with Answers ISBN 0-923891-78-1
• Sam Loyd and his Chess Problems by Alain C. White

• Sam Loyd: His Story and Best Problems, by Andrew Soltis, Chess Digest, 1995, ISBN 0-87568-267-7

Chess

• Chessmetrics entry for Loyd
• 45 chess problems Sam Loyd

Interactive puzzle

• Farmer and Wife to Catch Rooster and Hen - interactive Sam Loyd's puzzle
• Solve Loyd's 16 squares puzzle interactively

Books

• The Sam Loyd Cyclopedia of Puzzles - The complete 1914 book by Sam Loyd (public domain) scanned
• Math Games — The Sam Loyd Cyclopedia of Puzzles, by Ed Pegg Jr., January 3, 2005 — announcement of scans and overview
• Index of Math Puzzles, by Don Knuth