The current issue of Vanity Fair has an excerpt from Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis. Just look for the issue featuring the ghostly visage of She Who Used To Be Nicole Kidman. This is an unprecedented biography. There is relatively little known about Schulz, whom I consider to be one of the definitive American artists. From the Publishers Weekly review-For all the joy Charlie Brown and the gang gave readers over half a century, their creator, Charles Schulz, was a profoundly unhappy man. It's widely known that he hated the name Peanuts, which was foisted on the strip by his syndicate. But Michaelis (N.C. Wyeth: A Biography), given access to family, friends and personal papers, reveals the full extent of Schulz's depression, tracing its origins in his Minnesota childhood, with parents reluctant to encourage his artistic dreams and yearbook editors who scrapped his illustrations without explanation. Nearly 250 Peanuts strips are woven into the biography, demonstrating just how much of his life story Schulz poured into the cartoon. In one sequence, Snoopy's crush on a girl dog is revealed as a barely disguised retelling of the artist's extramarital affair. Michaelis is especially strong in recounting Schulz's artistic development, teasing out the influences on his unique characterization of children. And Michaelis makes plain the full impact of Peanuts' first decades and how much it puzzled and unnerved other cartoonists. This is a fascinating account of an artist who devoted his life to his work in the painful belief that it was all he had.
Harper releases the book October 16.
Amazon has a little Q&A with Michaelis HERE.
2 comments:
I remember after one of the cartoon movies (I think it was the one with the raft race), they showed a whole bunch of psychedelic clips of Schulz and they always made me sad as a kid but I didn't know why.
From a psychological point of view though, even the "hero" of the story is so down on himself that he thinks his dog has more fun, friends, and experiences with life than he does. I'm sure there's a lot of personal feelings there.
You might enjoy this audio interview with “Schulz and Peanuts” biographer David Michaelis (with transcription).
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