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Remembering Jules Feiffer

When Jules Feiffer and his wife JZ (Joan) Holden moved to a Cape Cod bungalow on the edge of Airport NY03, (a.k.a. Klenawicus International) on the Island, their kitchen table had a commanding view of a single, grassy runway.

The expanse of tall grass and weeds — once a lima bean field — was the site of occasional take-offs and landings during the four or five years they lived here. 

The take-offs were anticipated with glee by the 88-year-old artist, cartoonist and writer. “The other day Joan and I were sitting at that table, and I said, “I’m not leaving until that plane takes off.’ The plane was just sitting there, the propeller was going around and around and nothing was happening. And finally, I had to go inside and pee and the plane took off.”

Mr. Feiffer, who passed away on Jan. 17 at the age of 95, was amused by so much of what he saw around him. He was the keenest of observers. Those who knew him during his relatively short stay living on the Island are saddened by his death, but his wit and joie de vivre will never be forgotten.

That day when he spoke about this love of Klenawicus, I was there to interview him for an Island profile. An important social critic of the 20th century, he exposed in screenplays, books, and cartoon novels the callousness beneath political and familial mores with lethal accuracy, humor and deceptive informality.

So I knew his observation skills went beyond general aviation. “I am an amateur with very professional demands upon myself,” he said. “Carefree but not careless.”

Also present during the interview were his wife, and a large, gregarious cat. The cat stayed close but said little. Once or twice, during the interview, Ms. Holden hollered a correction from the second floor. “She is terribly shy,” Mr. Feiffer said.

On that sunny morning, Mr. Feiffer was thinking about the nature of his artistic process and the ways age had changed it. He discussed his new work, what the gift of years had meant to him, and how the search for artistic perfection intensified in his old age.

“When you’re older, there is no such thing as good enough. The need to control is the enemy of creativity,” he said. “It’s a game and a dance, and you finally come to a resolution that is satisfactory to you and to the creative impulse. The last thing is to let the brain intrude.”

He spoke of visiting the Picasso Museum to see the artist’s late-in-life drawings, works made shortly before his death. “The curator said, “These are not very good, he was losing it,” but what I saw was brilliance. They were his essence, uncomplicated, pure. That’s what I saw in Picasso and that’s what I want to see in my own aging process.”

Donald Trump had just been elected President, and at a time when many people did not take the new chief executive seriously, he was reminded of 20th century history he had experienced. “I think we’re at the scariest period in our history that I have ever known,” he said. “Whatever you want to say about Joe McCarthy, he wasn’t president of the United States, and he didn’t have power beyond the groups he could influence. He didn’t have an army and a navy and his finger on the button.”

In 2022, Mr. Feiffer and Ms. Holden gave up the runway view and moved to a home in upstate New York with a magnificent hilltop view.

He had a lot to say on the day we met on the Island about joy, which he claimed to experience every day.

“How many people,” he asked, “have the good fortune to have their lives go, not just as they planned, but even better than they planned?”