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Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography | 
 enlarge | Author: David Michaelis
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 51313
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 704
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0060937998
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN: 9780060937997
ASIN: 0060937998
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
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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
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. Schulz and Peanuts is the definitive epic biography of an American icon and the unforgettable characters he created.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Sloooooow & boring January 4, 2009
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.
 Great book! December 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Got this for my fiance who is an avid peanuts fan! It is such a great book! He loves it! Highly recommended!
 I Liked It and I Didn't Like It December 16, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Wonderful book November 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
 Probably the truth -- but not the whole truth, and not nothing but the truth November 8, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
My guess -- and it's nothing more -- is that the truth lies somewhere between the claims of Schulz's children (who want to protect their late father) and Michaelis (who, as others have pointed out, seemed to first formulate his thesis, then write the book in such a way as to support it).
It's not surprising that Schulz was a flawed human. Who is not? Is it shocking that he and his wife grew apart? Or shocking that a wealthy celebrity would succumb to temptation and have an extra-marital affair? But it's something of a leap to portray him -- as Michaelis does -- as a cold, self-centered, uncaring man. And Michaelis doesn't just present that thesis; he drives it into the ground. The book becomes repetitive after a while.
Finally, there are little things in Michaelis' writing that are annoying -- such as his twice calling Schulz a "scratch golfer with an 8 handicap". That's an oxymoron -- like calling someone "a straight-A student with a B average".
Anyway, I still give it three stars because, among those hundreds of pages devoted to portraying Schulz as a pitiful man, there was a lot of good information.
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