“The Phantom Tollbooth” Author Norton Juster Dies at 91

Norton Juster, author of “The Phantom Tollbooth,” one of the most beloved children’s books of the past century, died March 8, 2021 at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts. The cause was complications from a recent stroke, said his daughter, Emily Juster.

Remembering his friend and collaborator of more than 60 years, “The Phantom Tollbooth” illustrator and Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer said: “Norton had a twinkle in his eye from the moment we met. He was one of the quickest, smartest, most immediately engaging people I’ve ever known. His singular quality was being mischievous. He saw humor as turning everything on its head. It’s incredible the effect he had on millions of readers who turned ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ into something of a cult or a religion. There aren’t many people who you can look back and say they made a recognizable and real contribution to our culture. Norton was certainly one of them.”

Juster, who began his career as an architect, called himself “an accidental writer.” Yet, over five decades, he produced many highly regarded titles. He wrote and illustrated “The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics” (1963), which was adapted for the screen by MGM and famed animator Chuck Jones and narrated by Robert Morley. It won the 1965 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. In 2017, it was adapted as a musical piece and performed at Carnegie Hall featuring John Lithgow as narrator.

Juster wrote two picture books illustrated by Chris Raschka and inspired by his granddaughter: “The Hello, Goodbye Window” (2005), which won the 2006 Caldecott Medal for its illustrations, and its sequel, “Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie” (2008). Other books include “So Sweet to Labor (1979: later retitled “A Woman’s Place: Yesterday’s Women in Rural America”), “Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys (1965),” “Stark Naked: A Paranomastic Odyssey (1969),” “Otter Nonsense (1982),” illustrated by his friend, Eric Carle, and “As: A Surfeit of Similes (1989).” In 2010, Juster and Feiffer reunited to write and illustrate “The Odious Ogre.” At the time, Juster quipped, “We realized it was such fun working together that we made a pact: we are prepared to do a new book every 50 years.”  He and Stoo Hample received an Emmy Award for the television production of “Children’s Letters to God.”

Yet, of all his books, “The Phantom Tollbooth” (1961) was beloved to countless fans, some of whom named their children Milo after the main character or proudly showed off tattoos of their favorite character. With its playful language and whimsical drawings, the fantasy adventure tale had a cult-like following among readers of all ages and was frequently compared to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

“Conceived in Brooklyn during the Cold War 1950s, the book is about much more than a bored little boy who travels through a tollbooth to the Lands Beyond to rescue princesses named Rhyme and Reason,” said Hannah Jayanti, director of the 2013 documentary, “The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations.” “It’s also about the value of learning, the state of children’s literature, the creative journey and the importance of the written word.” 

Winner of the George C. Stone Centre for Children’s Books Award, “The Phantom Tollbooth” has been translated into many languages and sold almost four million copies since its initial publication. An animated version of the film was produced in 1970 with a live action version directed by Carlos Saldanha reportedly in the works. The 2008 audiobook is narrated by actor David Hyde Pierce while a 2019 version features actor Rainn Wilson. In addition, Juster collaborated with Sheldon Harnick and Arnold Black on a musical adaptation, which premiered at The John F. Kennedy Center in 2007 and went on to be performed in schools and theaters around the country. 

The 50th anniversary edition of the book features an appreciation by Maurice Sendak (which ran in the 35th anniversary edition as well) with celebratory essays by authors Jeanne Birdsall, Michael Chabon, Suzanne Collins, Philip Pullman and Mo Willems; Harvard Law School Professor Martha Minow; Swedish literary critic and academic Maria Nikolajeva; retired school librarian Pat Scales; and retired teacher Bev Walnoha.

The book’s back story may be as interesting as the book itself and is the topic of Jayanti’s documentary (which is being released this week as a gift to Juster’s many fans). In 1957, when Juster returned to the U.S. after serving in the Navy, he got a grant from the Ford Foundation to write a book about urban perceptions. Instead, he began writing a story about “a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself—not just sometimes, but always.” The story was based on his own childhood and became “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Juster wrote the book while living in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights and would share drafts with his housemate, a young Village Voice cartoonist named Jules Feiffer, who started producing sketches to illustrate the text.

Juster recounted how early feedback to the draft was that “the vocabulary was too difficult for children” and “fantasy is bad for children; it disorients them.” This was at a time when the country was preoccupied with improving education and literacy through making learning more accessible and less challenging. Yet when the book was published in 1961, the quirky story with its puns and word play became a hit.

Born on June 2, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York, Juster studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1952-53 he was a Fulbright Scholar in city planning at the University of Liverpool’s School of Architecture. After spending three years in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps, he returned to New York to begin his career as an architect by opening his own firm.  He and his life-long friend, Earl Pope, taught design at Pratt Institute and together joined the founding faculty of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1970.  At that time, he moved to Buckland, Massachusetts where he and Pope expanded their architectural practice as Juster Pope Frazier. Projects included buildings on the Hampshire, Smith, and Amherst campuses and buildings for Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

Juster retired from teaching in 1992 and from architecture practice in 1996. Since then, he found great pleasure in writing and speaking at schools, writing conferences and workshops. He serve on the board of Reader to Reader, an organization that supplies books to libraries and schools that do not have funds to purchase their own books. Calling himself “an amateur cook and professional eater,” he also enjoyed long walks and travel, making friends of all ages along the way. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather.

Juster’s wife of 54 years, Jeanne, passed away in 2018. He is survived by his daughter Emily and granddaughter Tori, both of Amherst, as well as several sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Juster’s life will take place at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the Jones Library or to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, both in Amherst, Massachusetts.