Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis

Note: The following text was written starting in January 2008, when I had finished the book discussed here. I picked up the draft and finished it in March 2009. The copy of the book that I read was an advance preview, and while I think there were few revisions before publication, it should be noted.

I had heard about some static about this book when I was a quarter the way through reading it and I decided that I didn't really need to read about it. I knew I was going to finish the book, so I thought I might as well finish it while judging it solely on its merits. When I finished the book, and I thought, "well, I had better write the review of it first, then I can follow up on the scuttlebutt." So here's my take, before I read the talkback:

The book takes an interesting theory — Schulz wrote his own autobiography in fifty years of strips — and takes it to a logical, if impossible to prove, conclusion. Michaelis writes his prose, then inserts Peanuts strips to support his narrative. He does a fine job, but it begs the question of how often he had to bend his narrative to synchronize with the strip at hand.

I frequently read non-fiction, but almost never read single-focus biographies. It may be that I don't understand the expectations of the form, but it seems that the best the author can do is to research his subject fully and make his best guesses about the meaning of the subject's life. Michaelis seems to have done his legwork, finding stories and anecdotes, recorded and retold, from those closest to Schulz. I am sure that the story he builds focuses on those tales which best support his hypothesis, but any reader should always assume that a story is told from the perspective of the teller, even a biography. The greatest support I found for the telling of this tale is the samples offered and cross referenced from the 50 years of comic strips that Schulz created.

Michaelis provides numerous reprints of strips from Peanuts run, inserting them directly into the text to provide illumination to the stories, theories, and facts laid out in the writing. As a reader who firmly believes that an artist who creates a lasting work of art (something that I credit Charles Schulz with doing), I agree that the tales of Charlie Brown and company can offer illumination as to the inner life and personality of Charles Schulz.

The greatest testament I can offer as to the author's evenhandedness is to say that he offers a reading of a life, not a definition of one. Michaelis certainly offers his perspective on the life of the legendary cartoonist, but never reaches hyperbole that dictates that this is the only perspective. This might say more about your reader, since I read journalism with the same skepticism, and it serves me well. Charles Schulz is an artist who has a significant amount of literature focusing on his life, and I think that this book offers a unique, insightful perspective to add to the expanding light which illuminates his life.

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis