These collector’s editions perfectly recreate the original look and feel of the best-loved Peanuts books—their paper, their ink, even their lamination. And of course, the heartwarming content that charmed the world, sold millions, and launched the career of Charles M. Schulz remains untouched. On every spread there’s a tiny tidbit of wisdom from one of the gang, along with one of Schulz’s irresistible drawings. It’s a trip down memory lane that every Peanuts fan will cherish.
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Charles M. Schulz was born November 25, 1922 in Minneapolis. His destiny was foreshadowed when an uncle gave him, at the age of two days, the nickname Sparky (after the racehorse Spark Plug in the newspaper strip Barney Google).
In his senior year in high school, his mother noticed an ad in a local newspaper for a correspondence school, Federal Schools (later called Art Instruction Schools). Schulz passed the talent test, completed the course and began trying, unsuccessfully, to sell gag cartoons to magazines. (His first published drawing was of his dog, Spike, and appeared in a 1937 Ripley's Believe It Or Not! installment.) Between 1948 and 1950, he succeeded in selling 17 cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post--as well as, to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press, a weekly comic feature called Li'l Folks. It was run in the women's section and paid $10 a week. After writing and drawing the feature for two years, Schulz asked for a better location in the paper or for daily exposure, as well as a raise. When he was turned down on all three counts, he quit.
He started submitting strips to the newspaper syndicates. In the spring of 1950, he received a letter from the United Feature Syndicate, announcing their interest in his submission, Li'l Folks. Schulz boarded a train in June for New York City; more interested in doing a strip than a panel, he also brought along the first installments of what would become Peanuts--and that was what sold. (The title, which Schulz loathed to his dying day, was imposed by the syndicate). The first Peanuts daily appeared October 2, 1950; the first Sunday, January 6, 1952.
Diagnosed with cancer, Schulz retired from Peanuts at the end of 1999. He died on February 13, 2000, the day before Valentine's Day--and the day before his last strip was published--having completed 17,897 daily and Sunday strips, each and every one fully written, drawn, and lettered entirely by his own hand--an unmatched achievement in comics.
I remember this book so well that I can even recall how it smelled as I read it as a preschooler. This is a great little book--not outdated in the least, even almost 40 years after it first came out. My childhood copy disintegrated years ago, but I was lucky enough to find it secondhand for my own kids, who like it as much as I did. The wildly-colored pages are a precursor to sixties "groovyness," but the text is years before its time. I think children need to be taught to appreciate the little things in life just as much as adults. It is possible (and maybe necessary) to find satisfaction in daily situations. One of my favorite pages in the book shows Linus working on a jisaw puzzle. "Happiness is finding the little piece with the pink edge and part of the sky and the top of the sailboat." How true!
"Happiness is a Warm Puppy" is as genuinely appealing as it was years ago. It's easy to see why the book is still sought out at online auctions. This is a little book of endearing philosophy that will survive another 40 years.
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This review is from: Happiness is a Warm Puppy (Peanuts) (Hardcover)
I thank whoever reproduced these little gems!!! I owned this in elementary school and saw it featured in a woman's magazine and flipped! This book is still as great today as it was then. I bought one for my neighbor's grandaughter and she loves it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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