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| Norton Juster | |
Norton Juster, "who wrote one of children's literature's most beloved and enduring books, The Phantom Tollbooth," died March 8, the New York Times reported. He was 91. First published in 1961, The Phantom Tollbooth was illustrated by the man Juster shared a duplex with at the time, Jules Feiffer, who was early in his career as a cartoonist and author. The book has sold almost four million copies, been reissued multiple times and was adapted into an animated film and a stage musical.
In a statement, Feiffer reflected on the qualities Juster brought to the book and the impact his story has had on generations of readers: "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."
An architect, Juster described himself as an "accidental writer," and despite his success as a children's author, he "would continue to work in architecture for three more decades, co-founding an architectural firm and working as a professor of architecture at Hampshire College until his retirement in 1992," the Guardian wrote.
Among the projects his company, Juster Pope Frazier, designed was the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., the Washington Post noted.
In addition to reuniting with Feiffer in 2010 on The Odious Ogre, Juster's other children's titles include The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, which was adapted into a 1965 Oscar-winning animated short; Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys, illustrated by Domenico Gnoli; As Silly as Knees, as Busy as Bees: An Astounding Assortment of Similes, illustrated by David Small; and The Hello, Goodbye Window with Chris Raschka, who received a Caldecott Medal for his illustrations of the magical window at a little girl's grandparents' house. He also wrote a book for adults, A Women's Place: Yesterday's Women in Rural America.
Mo Willems tweeted: "My lunch partner, Norton Juster, ran out of stories & passed peacefully last night. Best known for THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH + THE DOT & THE LINE, Norton's greatest work was himself: a tapestry of delightful tales. Miss him. 'To the vector goes the spoils.' " Philip Pullman remembered Juster as "a wonderfully inventive writer and a truly lovely man."
In a 2012 CNN interview, Juster talked about the key to writing for young readers: "You have to retain, I guess, a good piece of the way you thought as a child. I think if you lose all of that, that's where the deadliness comes from. The idea of children looking at things differently is a precious thing. The most important thing you can do is notice."