Word has broken that Norton Juster has died at the age of 91. He is best known amongst readers for his children’s fantasy novel The Phantom Tollbooth and mathematically-oriented The Dot and The Line.
While beloved as a children’s book author, Juster’s primary vocation throughout his life was architecture, telling an interviewer that “I grew up in architecture, my father was an architect, my brother, who is four and a half years old, was training and then became an architect. I had no idea I was every going to be a writer or anything like that.” After attending college, he joined the US Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps, which he described as a “terrific experience,” but in which “a lot of your time is wasted.” To help pass the time, he began drawing and writing, and was chastised by his CO for it.
After leaving the Navy, he joined a New York architectural firm, and began to think about writing a book that would teach children about cities. He ultimately got a grant for the project, and began writing. It didn’t go well: “I started with great energy and enthusiasm until I found myself waist-deep in stacks of 3-by-5 note cards, exhausted and dispirited,” He told NPR in 2011. “This is not what I wanted to do.” He began to think about another story, and “The Phantom Tollbooth came about because I was trying to avoid doing something else.”
While looking for that other story, he was inspired by a conversation he had with a boy about the notion of infinity, and began writing the story that would ultimately become The Phantom Tollbooth.
The story follows a boy named Milo who gets an unexpected gift: a tollbooth and a map, which transports him to some new, strange lands, like Expectations, the Doldrums, and Dicionopolis, The Kingdom of Wisdom, and others. The novel was published in 1961, and went on to become a major classic, earning comparisons to the likes of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice and Wonderland. The book would later be adapted into a hybrid animated and live-action film in 1970, directed by Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow, and Dave Monahan. Juster wasn’t a fan of the film, saying that he didn’t think they did a good job. As of 2018, a remake of the project was in the works.
Juster continued to work as an architect, opening a firm in Massachusetts, but continued to write books for children, including The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, Stark Naked: A Paranomastic Odyssey, and most recently in 2011, Neville.
The Phantom Tollbooth has always been one of my absolute favourite books. It’s a worthy achievement on its own for any lifetime. RIP.
And now I know what to read tonight in memoriam. I have read that to my sons several times as they grew up. Still one of my favorites.
So sorry to hear this. I adore The Dot and the Line; the book and the film both ended up meaning a lot to me. The titular romance is pretty goofy, of course, but it’s just a framing device for the clever dry humour, wordplay, and mathematical wonder and joy.
I didn’t read The Phantom Tollbooth until I was in my 20s, somehow, but I enjoyed it very much.
There was a great documentary about Norton Juster and the writing of “The Phantom Tollbooth,” titled “The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations” that came out in 2012. I think it’s available online and on DVD. It also includes some wonderful animations of Jules Feiffer’s drawings.
I need to re-read this book that inspired me as a child to incorporate word-play into everything.
To Norton, who knows the way…
I was introduced to this book only recently and fell in love with it, as did one of my kids. We are both saddened to hear of his passing.
Juster spoke at the Boston Public Library some years ago, saying that Feiffer came onboard for The Phantom Tollbooth because they were living in the same brownstone in NYC, and drew Juster as the Whether Man (news to me at the time as I’d never seen a picture of Juster). I have loved the book since reading it shortly after it came out, hated the 1970’s movie (the kid was too damn perky to be bored and the songs were dreadful and unnecessary — but that’s 1970’s film), and have been hoping the more recent film will turn out OK even though it won’t match what’s in my head. The gender roles are awkwardly typed for these days, but I hope it will still be entertaining for the 2nd generation on from me in time. (3yo is a bit young…) And now I have a couple of new titles to look for….
It is probably trite to say this but after reading the Phantom Tollbooth as a child, I really did feel like Milo at the end of this story with a new excitement about reading. It was like magic made real. Thank you, Mr Juster. Rest in peace, sir.
I was introduced to The Phantom Tollbooth when I was maybe 12 and the book had just come out. I began it a couple times and thought it was boring. That was the first time my mother told me, “Read the entire first chapter, and then you can decide whether to finish it or not,” a ploy I used on my own children years later. :) Needless to say, once Milo met Tock, I was in for the duration.
I had not recalled that Juster had said it came about because he “was trying to avoid doing something else.” Kinda reminds me of someone else, who was bored with correcting examination papers only to turn one over and write “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
I think it’s a pretty common story. I’ve heard similar anecdotes from many, many authors. We tell each other, “You’ll never finish anything if you move on to something else every time you get stuck,” but then we ignore our own advice and something wonderful happens. It’s almost like the book you’re excited about writing turns out better than the one you’re not…