Play It Again, Schroeder! [Paperback]

Charles M. Schulz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2007

ENCORE, ENCORE!
Refined and reserved, Schroeder has an unmatched talent and style–no wonder Lucy fell in love with the golden-haired boy. Now Schroeder inspires his Peanuts friends to make beautiful music together. Play It Again, Schroeder! features more than three hundred strips of melodic memories. So gather around the piano with Schroeder, Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, and the rest of the Peanuts gang as they serenade us with music, laughter, and fun!

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345479858
• ISBN-13: 978-0345479853
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,161,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I had hoped, November 21, 2007

By 

M. Garrett "mg" (Dubuque, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Play It Again, Schroeder! (Paperback)

Though I do love Peanuts and was not dissapointed in the strips selected, I had thought this collection would be similar to other Ballantine Books collections with similar titles. I thought it would be the Peanuts strip for an entire year - they have gone backward from 2000 to 1995. But it is not - this strictly is a musical collection.

5.0 out of 5 stars Play It Again, Schroeder, January 19, 2009

By 

C. Strong (sevierville, tn United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Play It Again, Schroeder! (Paperback)

A delightful walk down memory lane. Schroeder and his toy piano appear in the earliest strips through the final ones with all the cast making appearances. Often, the most is said with little or no dialogue. Each character has their own special interaction, whether jilted lover, music affectionado, bystander, coach, etc. Always the center of attention at parties, this collection of comics favorite piano player is a must for all Peanuts fans. Beethoven would have been proud!