Schulz and peanuts a biography

Charles Schulz is worth fighting over. Like all great artists, he speaks to personal concerns in such an intimate way that he becomes part of your mental furniture. We grew up, if we were lucky, reading Peanuts. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Snoopy: these were our childhood friends, especially if we were sensitive and lonely. For many of us, it was the first work of art we encountered that spoke to our inner selves, our fears and trepidations. Even if we stopped reading the strip after a while, it always retained a spot in our memory, a small clearing of remembered warmth and fellowship. So if someone else describes Schulz in a manner that clashes with your own private sense of him, the urge is to struggle, resist, and talk back.

David Michaelis&#;s Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography is a provoking book, both a triumph and an irritant. A triumph: it&#;s beautifully written, deeply-researched, and full of insights into how Schulz&#;s life infor

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Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography

June 28,

Luciously readable, fascinating, and flawed account of the life of the creator of Charlie Brown. I first decided to read this book because of a massive roundtable featured in the latest issue of "The Comics Journal," the basic conclusion being that the book does the real-life Schulz no justice. (I read the book, and then read the roundtable.)

Monte Schulz, the son of the great cartoonist, kicked off the roundtable with a massive essay that's divided into three parts: a brief memoir of his time and experience with David Michaelis, in which Monte spent much time and exchanged a number of emails with the biographer, to the point that he thought they had a genuine friendship (proving what should be an old adage, "Do not man friends with your father's biographer."); in part two, he lists the vast amount of grievances he has with the biography, indicating that he has many more and generally despising the entire tone of Michaelis' work; in part t

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ON SCHULZ AND PEANUTS BY DAVID MICHAELIS

Schulz: All of the things that you see in the strip, if you were to read it every day and study it, you would know me.

Rose: To read your characters is to know you.

Schulz: Isn’t that depressing?

&#;Charles Schulz on The Charlie Rose Show

Good grief. David Michaelis&#;s Schulz and Peanuts. A grueling pages of book that exhausted and disappointed me. So many details, so many of them not significant. I never get sick of Peanuts, but by the end of the book, I was sick of Charles Schulz.

Jeet Heer has written a really brilliant post about the strengths and flaws of the book, almost % of which I agree with. Jeannie Schulz and the Schulz kids have also been really outspoken about the fact that the book, in their opinion, is just downright wrong.

Whether it&#;s factually inaccurate or not, I didn&#;t find it to be a pleasant nor a particularly great read.

The major innovation of the book is the way Michaelis weaves examples of