This Way to Infinity
The New Yorker has a lovely article this month that celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of one of my all-time favorite books, The Phantom Tollbooth. I have never understood why it isn't a ridiculously famous book. The adventures of Milo and his newfound friends (Tock the dog and The Humbug) are smart, funny, charming, exciting, and fascinating. The book combines silliness and wonder with a thoughtful view of the world that makes it an irresistible story for any kid (or grown-up). I think I was seven or eight when I read it, so there's a rough suggestion of appropriate age, for what it's worth. I think it would also be a terrific book for a parent and child to read together, so that the parent might help out with the more difficult words (I learned a lot of vocabulary with this book) and some of the more spectacular wordplay (The Island of Conclusions, that one can only reach by jumping to it).
On October 25th, Knopf will release a fiftieth anniversary edition of the book. Michael Chabon has written the introduction for this edition, part of which you can read here.
On the same day, Knopf will also release The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, which includes lengthy interviews with author Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Pfeiffer (I think it's likely that I first encountered Jules Pfeiffer when I read the book), along with "illuminating excerpts from Juster's notes and drafts, cultural and literary commentary," and more. This month's School Library Journal has an interview with Juster and Pfeiffer about the book which you can read here.
I just pulled my copy off of my shelf; it's the same volume I read when I was a kid. While it's not a first edition (the publication date is 1972, not 1961), but the pages are all yellowed and a few are torn. It has that wonderful "old book" smell.
It's 60 degrees right now in Chicago. The sky is blue, the sun is warm, and there's a soft breeze blowing. I'm putting on a jacket, hiking my chair-that-folds-up-into-a-sling-bag over my shoulder, and taking my copy of The Phantom Tollbooth with me on the ten-minute walk that will take me to a sandy beach on Lake Michigan. We don't start losing light until 6:08—I still have time to catch Chroma the Great conducting the sunset.