Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography

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Editorial reviews

Product Description

Charles M. Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the least understood figures in American culture. Now acclaimed biographer David Michaelis gives us the first full-length biography of the brilliant, unseen man behind Peanuts: at once a creation story, a portrait of a native genius, and a chronicle contrasting the private man with the central role he played in shaping the national imagination.

It is the most American of stories: How a barber's son grew up from modest beginnings to realize his dream of creating a newspaper comic strip. How he daringly chose themes never before attempted in mainstream cartoons—loneliness, isolation, melancholy, the unending search for love—always lightening the darker side with laughter and mingling the old-fashioned sweetness of childhood with a very adult and modern awareness of the bitterness of life. And how, using a lighthearted, loving touch, a crow-quill pen dipped in ink, and a cast of memorable characters, he portrayed the struggles that come with being awkward, imperfect, human.

With Peanuts, Schulz profoundly influenced America in the second half of the twentieth century. But the humorous strip was anchored in the collective experience and hardships of the artist's generation—the generation that survived the Great Depression, liberated Europe and the Pacific, and came home to build the prosperous postwar world. Michaelis masterfully weaves Schulz's story with the cartoons that are so familiar to us, revealing how so much more of his life was part of the strip than we ever knew.

Based on years of research, including exclusive interviews with the cartoonist's family, friends, and colleagues, unprecedented access to his studio and business archives, and new caches of personal letters and drawings, Schulz and Peanuts is the definitive epic biography of an American icon and the unforgettable characters he created.

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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Significant Seven, October 2007: There's no book this year that made people's eyes light up when I told them about it more than Schulz and Peanuts, David Michaelis's new biography of cartoonist Charles Schulz. (And when they saw the obvious-but-brilliant Chip Kidd-designed cover, their eyes got even brighter.) Everyone, it seems, feels a personal connection to Peanuts (a name, by the way, that Schulz always hated), but few have a sense of the artist whose small troupe of big-headed characters still lives at the center of our imagination. If some mystery about the man still remains after reading Michaelis's sharp, engaging, and level-headed biography that's no fault of the biographer--in fact, it's to his credit. Michaelis parses Schulz's particular combination of Midwestern reserve and steely determination and the strip's still-surprising balance of exuberance and misery, and he reminds us what a colossal cultural force it became, especially in the 1960s. But even as he ingeniously finds sources for Schulz's four-panel vignettes in the events of his biography, he recognizes that the true, sometimes inexplicable drama of his life took place when he sat down every day for 50 years to trace Linus's wobbly strands of hair, fill in Snoopy's black nose, and, time and again, letter the words "Good grief." --Tom Nissley

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-01-08 rating:
Exhaustive, often brilliant view of a great cartoonist
A perfectly designed cover graces a very full and complete biography of perhaps America's greatest cartoonist, a book I knew I had to have the minute I saw it. A long-time fan of 'Peanuts' going back to the early '60s, I've always loved Schulz's work and wanted to know more about him.

Michalis' book gives you almost more than you want to know about Schulz, examining and analyzing virtually every detail of his life from birth to death. I learned some things I didn't know, including where the references to Needles, home of Snoopy's brother Spike, came from (Schulz's family's residence there for two years when he was a boy) as well as the name 'Snoopy' (a passing remark by his mother, Dena, which he recalled as he began the strip in 1950). His family life and its connection to his own very shy and introverted, yet oddly ambitious personality is examined at length, as well as his relationships with others, particularly women. Not without his flaws, he nonetheless comes off for the most part as a kind, gentle, affectionate, and funny man whom, perhaps because he took a long time to grow up, never forgot the trials and tribulations of childhood.

The book has apparently been sharply criticized by the Schulz family, who seem to be resentful of the amount of speculation and intimate detail Michaelis gave Schulz's life. And I can imagine that 'Sparky' might have hated the book, or at least resented all that it revealed about him. I can't speak to any factual errors made by the author, but if I have a gripe with the writing it would be that it is a times rather florid and that Michaelis overdoes his psychological speculations on Schulz's behavior and the reasons for it. A bit less imagination in these interpretations might have made for a more solid biography, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book very much and I think that, given the access Michaelis had and the number of people close to Schulz he spoke to (quite a few of them now deceased), he produced a very solid and exhaustive biography of Charles M. Schulz. And for that I have to give him high marks and a 'thank you.'

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review by: date: 2009-01-04 rating:
Sloooooow & boring
Good Grief! This book moves at glacial speed. By page 100, Sparky is still 14 years old. The author spends so much time on trivial stuff like describing the steps leading to the door of Sparky's high school. Richards uses 650 pages to do what could easily be done in 200. Don't waste your time on this one. Like Lucy pulling the football out from Charlie Brown's kick, this book is a huge letdown. Too bad -4 star ratings aren't available.

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review by: date: 2008-12-29 rating:
Great book!
Got this for my fiance who is an avid peanuts fan! It is such a great book! He loves it! Highly recommended!

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review by: date: 2008-12-16 rating:
I Liked It and I Didn't Like It
I recently spotted this book in the library and decided to read it before buying a copy. With little or no knowledge of Schulz's personal life, it was interesting to read about his childhood, family life, his ambition to become a cartoonist, etc. But I didn't like it that the author dwelled over and over about Schulz's personal torments: he never got over his mother's death, everyone said he wouldn't amount to anything, he never thought anyone really liked him. Come on, Mr. Michaelis. We get it! Everybody has these same kinds of feelings sometime in their life. The author did a disservice to the readers by ramming this stuff down our throats throughout all 633 pages. He created a sad, pathetic, one-dimensional person which I don't believe for one minute. How Schulz could take a personal (and sometimes painful) experience and draw a strip about it in a humorous way was brilliant. And to keep doing that for 50 years was pure genius. The last sentence in Michaelis' book really p***** me off. Sure, Schulz's body is gone, but his spirit isn't and never will be. P.S. I did not buy the book.


review by: Blittie the Blue Kitty date: 2008-11-29 rating:
Wonderful book
Even though I have read the reviews of the disappointed readers, I still think this book was well put together.
About 10 years ago, I saw a "Biography" type program on the life of Charles Schulz and it really portrayed him as very depressed. I've never seen the program again, so I think that this aspect of his personality is revealed often when interviewing the people who populated his life, therefore airing programs about him and releasing books hasn't interested the media and publishers.
Anyway, I think the thesis of the book is to show that one can reveal aspects of Schulz's life when reading the comics he wrote, and this book does a decent job of illustrating this point. I, too, felt the era of the 1970's was a bit short, but when I learned the original research draft was over 1000 pages, I can forgive the author.
I would love to see a movie or more books released about this iconic man of the 20th century. Charles Schulz really does deserve more attention and credit, so be careful in reviewing the book too harshly since the media is very fickle and will interpret this as a sign people aren't interested in him.
In conclusion, the book really is a good read and the points are followed up by comic strips illustrating the points of the author, which I found very charming.

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