The Phantom Tollbooth - Context - About the Author and Illustrator

About the Author and Illustrator

Norton Juster (1929- )

In Juster, et al. (2011), p. xxxix

Norton Juster was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 2, 1929. His father was an architect and his mother managed her husband's office and the household (Marcus 2011, p. x-xi). As a child, Juster imagined a world with "no inanimate objects - shoes, chairs, silverware, vegetables, dishes, toothpaste tubes - everything had a life and a personality of its own and each 'thing' had to be dealt with in its own special way" (Juster quoted in Marcus, p. xii). He struggled with math due to having symptoms of synesthesia; he "discovered that it felt right to associate each of the numbers from zero to nine with different color[s]" (Marcus, p. xiii).

Juster followed his father's path and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania ("Norton Juster," 2014, para. 2). It was there that he studied under Lewis Mumford, "America's leading authority on urban history and design and the architecture critic at the New Yorker" (Marcus, p. xvi). After graduating, Juster was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at University of Liverpool's School of Architecture for a year of advanced study in civic design (p. xvi).

In 1954, Juster joined the navy because the draft was still in effect and volunteering to be in the Civil Engineer Corps of the United States Naval Reserve afforded him "more control over his destiny" than being conscripted into a two-year tour (Marcus, p. xvii). While in the navy, sequestered in a barracks ship, he began to write and illustrate a children's book titled "The Passing of Irving;" he managed to complete it despite being told by his commanding officer that he needed to stop because it was not appropriate behavior for a navy-man and his behavior was damaging moral (pp. xvii-xviii). His final posting was a desk job in the Brooklyn Navy Yard; this is around the time when he met Feiffer (p. xviii). (More on the connection between Juster and Feiffer below.)

After Juster was discharged from the navy he joined an architectural firm and worked part-time teaching at the Pratt Institute. Shortly after, Juster, Feiffer, and a third friend moved into a duplex together and The Phantom Tollbooth was born shortly thereafter (Marcus, p. xxiii). (See the Literary Criticism section for more information on this subject.) At the time he was "unmarried and childless, and with no particular background in writing or teaching, working out a series of jokes and joys for himself alone" (Gopkin, 2011, p. 1).

Juster published several children's books throughout the years, was partner in a small architectural firm where he designed private homes, schools, and museums (including the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art), and taught part-time (at Pratt Institute, where he taught architecture and planning, and then at Hampshire College from 1970-1992, where he was Professor of Design). (Marcus, p. xxxvii and "Norton Juster," para. 3)

Juster currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Jeanne Ray, a graphic designer, and has since retired from architecture and teaching ("Norton Juster," 2014, para. 6-7 and "Norton Juster," 2013, para. 4).

Notable Quotes

"Here, try some somersault," suggested the duke. "It improves the flavor."

Have a rigamarole," offered the count, passing the breadbasket.

"Or a ragamuffin," seconded the minister.

"Perhaps you'd care for a synonym bun," suggested the duke.

(Juster, 1996, p. 89)

"I used to read the encyclopedia when I was a kid. We had a big set of them at home and I just read it for fun. And I had this most fantastic assortment of totally unrelated and irrelevant facts at my fingertips with which I used to terrorize teachers. Or if not terrorize them, at least make things very uncomfortable, because I would be throwing stuff in that I didn't know where it belonged or anything. And after a while you realize that things start to connect. And that gets very exciting. And, that, I think is important."

(Stone, 2001, para. 6)

Awards Presented to Norton Juster

Fulbright Fellowship (1952-53)

Ford Foundation Grant (1960-61)

George C. Stone Centre for Children's Books Award for The Phantom Tollbooth (1961)

National Academy of Arts and Science award for outstanding achievement (1968-69)

Guggenheim fellowship (1970-71)

Reader to Reader: The Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy (2008)

List of Books Written by Norton Juster

(Titles in GREEN indicate the book is for children or young adults,

please note that this list is not all inconclusive)

The Phantom Tollbooth (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1961)

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (written by Norton Juster, 1963)

Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys (written by Norton Juster, 1965)

Stark naked; a Paranomastic Odyssey (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Arnold Roth, 1969)

So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America, 1865-1905 (edited by Norton Juster, 1979)

Otter Nonsense (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Michael C. Witte, 1982)

As: A Surfeit of Similes (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by David Small, 1989)

A Woman's Place: Yesterday's Women in Rural America (edited by Norton Juster, 1996)

The Hello, Goodbye Window (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Christopher Raschka, 2005 - received the Caldecott medal in 2006 for illustrations)

The Odious Ogre (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2010)

Neville (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by G. Brian Karas, 2011)

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Christopher Raschka, 2002)

Jules Feiffer (1929- )

In Juster, et al. (2011), p. xxxviii

Jules Feiffer was born in the Bronx, New York on January 26, 1929. His many occupations include political and social cartoonist, writer and illustrator of children's literature, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, satirist, and adjunct professor at Southampton College. He previously taught at Yale School of Drama, and Northwestern University. ("Jules Feiffer," 2004, para. 7)

After high school graduation Feiffer took drawing classes at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He served in the Signal Corps of the United States Army for two years and then focused on his art and writing. He worked for Will Eisner, cartoonist, and a huge name in the comic industry, and wrote scripts for Eisner's comic, "The Spirit." ("Jules Feiffer," para. 3)

Feiffer's political cartoon ran for 42 years in the Village Voice, a free weekly newspaper in New York City. "He is the only cartoonist to have had a comic strip published as a regular feature by the New York Times" ("Jules Feiffer," para. 7).

Feiffer's comics have also appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy, and The Nation. ("Jules Feiffer," 2004, para. 3)

Feiffer is married to Jenny Allan, writer and stand-up comic, and lives in New York City with their two daughters. His eldest daughter, Kate Feiffer, from a former marriage, also writes and illustrates children's books. Click here to see an interview of Jules and Kate Feiffer." ("Jules Feiffer," para. 14)

Notable quotes by Jules Feiffer

"The secret of my success comes from the creative use of failure and ineptitude in my life."

("Jules Feiffer," para. 6)

"I wanted to deal with the rather un-American idea of failure as a process. In a country where we talk about winners and losers and being number one, we don't give any attention to failure as being one of the more necessary learning tools of life. One of the things that I've learned over the years, having taken a lot of lumps along with a lot of success, is that it's not failure that counts; it's how you treat failure and what your attitude towards it turns out to be. Because if you do anything that is of value, it has to involve risk and the chance of screwing up."

("Jules Feiffer," para. 4)

Awards Presented to Jules Feiffer

George Polk Award (cartoons, 1961)

Oscar, best short-subject cartoon of the year for Munro (film, 1961)

Obie and Outer Circle Critics awards for The White House Murder Case (play, 1970)

Obie Award, London Theatre Critics, and Outer Circle Critics awards for Little Murders (play, 1971)

Tony award nomination for Knock, Knock (play, 1976)

Pulitzer Prize (editorial cartoons, 1986)

Venice Film Festival Best Screenplay award for I want to Go Home (film, 1989)

American Academy of Arts and Letters (elected, 1995)

National Cartoonists Society, Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award (2004)

Comic Book Hall of Fame, The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame (inducted, 2004)

Creativity Foundation, Bejamin Franklin Creativity Laureate in the Arts (2006)

Writers Guild of America, Fischetti Lifetime Achievement Award (2012)

List of Material by Jules Feiffer:

(Titles in GREEN indicate the book is for children or young adults, please note that this list is not all inconclusive)

Sick, Sick, Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1958)

The Explainers (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1960)

Munro (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1959, film in 1961)

Passionella and Other Stories (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1960)

The Phantom Tollbooth (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1961)

Boy Girl Boy Girl (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1961)

Crawling Arnold (written by Jules Feiffer, 1963)

The Rat with Women (written by Jules Feiffer, 1963)

The Birthday Ball (written by Lois Lowry and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1965)

Little Murders (written by Jules Feiffer, 1968)

Some Things Are Scary (written by Florence Parry Heide and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1969)

The White House Murder Case (written by Jules Feiffer, 1970)

Popeye (written by Jules Feiffer, 1980)

Grownups (written by Jules Feiffer, 1982)

Elliot Loves (written by Jules Feiffer, 1988)

I Want to Go Home (written by Jules Feiffer, 1989)

The Man in the Ceiling (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1993)

A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1995)

Bark, George (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1999)

I Lost My Bear (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1998)

Meanwhile… (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 1999)

I'm not Bobby! (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2001)

By the Side of the Road (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2001)

The House Across the Street (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2002)

The Great Comic Book Heroes (written by Jules Feiffer, 2003)

A Bad Friend (written by Jules Feiffer, 2003)

The Daddy Mountain (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2004)

A Room with a Zoo (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2005)

The Long Chalkboard: and Other Stories (written by Jennifer Allen and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2006)

The Odious Ogre (written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2010)

Backing Into Forward: A Memoir (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, 2010)

Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel (written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, August 25, 2014)

Out of Line: The Art of Jules Feiffer (by Martha Fay, Jules Feiffer, Leonard S. Marcus, and Mike Nichols, 2014)

The Juster - Feiffer Connection

The Phantom Tollbooth would not exist in its present form if it had not been for that fateful day that Jules Feiffer had taken out the trash and met Norton Juster.

Juster describes Feiffer as a "tall, shy, rail-thin straight man with the perpetually bemused expression" (Marcus, 2011, p. xix) While Feiffer describes Norton as "short and husky, with eyes that twinkled in a round face that beamed mischief. He walked and even napped as if he wore a back brace, which he didn't. Nervous energy emanated out of him. He was ever-cordial, ever-competitive, mixing whimsy, wit, and curiosity with wise-cracks and put-downs. The wordplay he was to employ a few years later in The Phantom Tollbooth worked its way into our everyday conversation (Feiffer, 2010, pp. 221-22).

The collaborators' origin stories are in order: Juster's version states: "So one of those marvelous accidents of life. I was in the navy at that time, and I was just in - the last place I was going to be stationed was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and we just ran into each other. I think Jules describes each of us putting out garbage one day. And in about a year or two, we took a large duplex apartment - the two of us and another friend of ours - at the other end of Brooklyn Heights. I lived on the top floor, mainly because the kitchen was there, and I did most of the cooking. Those two lived on the floor below. And when I wrote, I paced. And the pacing, I guess, kind of got on their nerves. So Jules came up, wanted to know what I was doing, and read some of the stuff. And he liked it, went away without my knowing it, and produced a whole bunch of absolutely wonderful drawings." (Norris, 2011, para. 45-46).

Feiffer's version corroborates: "Norton Juster and I met while taking out the garbage. At least that's how I choose to remember it. […] Norton spotted a new face and made a wisecrack. I wisecracked back, and we did that for a minute or two, admiring our own and each other's wit. […] I found out that Norton, though one would never guess it, was in the navy, a lieutenant stationed at a desk in the Brooklyn Navy Yard with six months to go on his enlistment. He was filling up the time he spent on duty by calling up pretty models whose pictures he had seen in newspapers and arranging to interview them for the Navy News Service. This was a fictional agency that Norton concocted to get himself dates, the kind of activity, in the fifties, was dismissed as a prank but these days would doubtless get him arrested" (Feiffer, p. 221).

In fact, "Juster went to the trouble of designing an impressive Society logo and preparing both an elaborate application form and a heart-stabbing rejection letter. If the navy was going to browbeat him into engaging in hour upon hour of mindless paperwork, Juster at least was not going to be outdone by it" (Marcus, p. xviii).

Living in the same duplex, collaboration was only a stairway away. Juster describes his collaboration with Feiffer: "I had started to do a little story to avoid doing some stuff I was supposed to be doing, and it sort of developed into a book. And while I was writing it, Jules - who was living in the same apartment, we were one floor apart - Jules saw some of the book, some of it, and started doing some illustrations for it. And they were marvelous, and so we just we did the one thing that publishers don't like you to do, is come in with a story and the illustrations all set, so the editor doesn't have much to say about it" (Hansen, 2010, para. 13).

Feiffer says, "When I agreed to do the illustrations he neglected to tell me that he was writing a classic. Otherwise, I might have drawn my finished art on something more substantial than tracing paper which a survival expectancy of zilch. No more than seven or eight drawings still exist, almost all of them in bad shape" (Feiffer, p. 223).

Juster describes Feiffer's illustrations as "The drawings were never just pictures—the drawings were the actual characters. That's what made them so helpful and easy to work with. I didn't just see a picture and say, "Now how do I relate to that?" I knew who that was" (Juster quoted in Horning, 2011, p. 40).

Feiffer says that Juster "was unable to write a paragraph in his upstairs bedroom without running a flight down to my quarters to read it aloud, chuckle in admiration, and wait for me to say something and start drawing. In that manner, The Phantom Tollbooth begin to take shape, a case of tell and show" (Feiffer, p. 224).

According to Norton, Feiffer did not like to draw maps, so Norton drew the map, "And then Jules took it and traced over it so it looked like his drawing" (Norris, para. 56).

It is strange, however, that it took fifty years for these two to collaborate on another book, The Odious Ogre (2010). The two also worked together on a documentary, titled The Phantom Tollboth: Beyond Expectations. (See the Multimedia page for more information.)

Juster & Feiffer (2012)