Did you watch the Peanuts specials on holidays when you were a kid? Does it still feel like a luxury that you can pop in a Peanuts DVD any time you want to? After trick or treating with my two children, candy counting, story telling, Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa in Washington state to show them their costumes, and coaxing them into bed, my husband Justin and I watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Still as good as it ever was.
I was put in mind of it because I caught a part of a radio interview with David Michaelis, the author of this new book: Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. Sounded like Charles Schulz was a very complicated man as well as an amazing artist whose work has endured--it also sounds like a good read, with Peanuts strips liberally sprinkled through the text to illustrate how autobiographical his work was.
There's a bit in "Great Pumpkin" where Snoopy leans on Schroeder's piano and reacts with great emotional highs and lows to the music he's playing. I love that part.
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