Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography
by David Michaelis
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Book Summary Information
Author: David MichaelisEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2007-10-01
ISBN: 0641863454
Number of pages: 672
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography
Book Review: A thorough biography--grew sadder as I progressed!
Summary: 4 Stars
As a huge fan of Peanuts (not the legumes but the long-running comic strip by Charles M Schulz), I nevertheless had put off reading this book Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis. Fortunately, I found it on sale for $6.98 (retail $34.98) at my local Barnes & Noble, so I purchased it and finally got around to reading it.
Let me state the punchline first. As fascinated as I was with Schulz, I found myself growing progressively sadder as the book went on. I recognize how biographical Peanuts was and how the different characters represented not only different people in his life, but also different aspects to his uber-guarded personality. He never felt loved nor worthy of love growing up. In a life where men aimed to work a trade with their hands, Sparky's lifelong ambition was to draw a comic strip.
He struggled with every relationship he had growing up, and wanted so much to be a success in the eyes of his parents. His mom never saw him succeed, dying of cancer at the age of 44--hours before Sparky was to go off into the Army and hip deep into World War 2. His guardedness in his relationships stemmed some from his sense of being a "nothing" (as he would describe himself), but also of a belief that he was seldom understood due to his talent that few could see or appreciate.
After coming back from the war, he worked at the Art Instruction School in Minneapolis. After numerous submissions of his work (and numerous rejections), United Syndicate gave young Sparky a chance. His philosophical musings through a children's only, minimalistic comic strip was so different and fresh that soon "Charlie Brown" was a sensation--one that lasted past Schulz' death in 2000. This "nothing from Minnesota" was soon bringing in salaries that few could fathom from a comic strip.
From this book, I would like to glean a few insights that are lessons in what to do and what not to do.
Focus
For Charles "Sparky" Schulz, the comic strip was the end all-be all of his life. Nothing could intrude, no one else could contribute, nothing would be allowed to interfere with the dynamic of the characters. When an interviewer asked Schulz about his kids, he began speaking of Charlie Brown and Lucy, Linus and Schroeder--only to be corrected: the interviewer wanted to know about Schulz' children!
Family
Coming from a family who showed very little affection, he grew up as one showing little affection as well. His lack of desire to confront his fiery first wife, Joyce, and to contribute in the discipline of the children and family life in general stemmed, according to many who knew them well, of Sparky not only feeling unable to love, but feeling unlovable. He would not allow anyone into the world of Peanuts, never allow anyone to contribute an idea, and would as a result exclude himself from the particulars of anything regarding the household. This manifested itself in some very sad and unimaginable ways.
The divorce from his first wife, Joyce, is especially heart-wrenching. How important is it for married couples to be involved and supportive of each others' endeavors! How important is it for fathers to be actively involved physically and spiritually in the lives of their children.
Fear
Sparky had a fear of intimacy at every level. Anxieties riddled his life, but he refused to seek out help because was afraid that any change in him would change the dynamic of the strip, and thus its ultimate success. In fact, the more depressed and anxiety-ridden his life was, he believed the more depth the strip had. He remained secluded, guarded, and never feeling safe in his clear status as the most influential cartoonist in American history as well as a sought-out philosopher and commentator of the age. Charlie Brown never kicked the football, never spoke to the little red-headed girl, and only until the end had he actually won a baseball game. Schulz once said that "Nice is not funny." This fear of intimacy and closeness bled profusely into his strips.
Yet, I am grateful for his inclusion of the Luke 2 birth narrative in A Charlie Brown Christmas--the most enduring and endearing of all Christmas specials, having run for 45 years consecutively! I wish Schulz had recognized the gospel power at the core of his life.
Faith
At one point after the War, Sparky joined the Church of God and was very involved in church--only in later years to turn his back on fundamental orthodoxy. His progressive liberalism was kept under wraps, for fear of hurting the influence of his comic strip which sought to appeal to everyone. Schulz had a high regard for Jesus and the Bible, but did not believe that any absolute truth existed. Seeing his decline from being one strong in the matters of faith to being one who all but abandoned it is a tragedy to see. Moving away from this base truly affected some decisions Schulz made in his personal life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one must recognize that God gives enormous talents and ambition to some that, when harnessed, prove very influential. Even in 2010, Charlie Brown is still known, loved, and understood. Yet, Michaelis has given such a thorough account of this iconic cartoonist, author, philosopher, and (we must remember) a human being. We must beware of projecting our own conceptions of an individual on that individual. I'm thankful for his contribution in Peanuts. His insights made (make) me think and observe the world much differently!
Summary of Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography
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.
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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