Good Grief! Author Describes Bio of Charles M. Schulz

Good Grief! Author Describes Bio of Charles M. Schulz -- And Oldest Son Offers Critique
By Dave Astor, senior editor at E&P.
Published: October 10, 2007

After one of "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz's sons read an advance copy of the epic new biography of his late father, he quipped to author David Michaelis: "I guess we were all expecting vanilla, but got Rocky Road."

Actually, Michaelis told E&P last month, the Schulz family knew from his "Schulz and Peanuts" proposal and from his 1998 biography of artist N.C. Wyeth that he would take a warts-and-all approach. The result? A book that puts a dent in Schulz's public sainthood by chronicling his flaws in addition to the positives.

Monte Schulz, the cartoonist's oldest son, told E&P today that he had problems with the book on several levels -- including what Michaelis chose to emphasize and some of the information the biography presented as fact.

If the Schulz family had to do it over again, said Monte, it would not have given Michaelis access to the Schulz papers and archives the author used for the biography. "I doubt we would have talked to him at all," he added.

The biography, "Schulz and Peanuts," coming Oct. 16 from HarperCollins, also offers many revelations and anecdotes Michaelis found during seven years of interviewing 200-plus people and studying Schulz's personal and studio archives as well as "Peanuts" business papers saved by United Feature Syndicate.

"Charles Schulz was a genius," Michaelis said of the man who created arguably the best, most popular, and most culturally significant comic ever. He added that Schulz (1922-2000) was hardworking -- doing "Peanuts" without assistants throughout its nearly 50-year run while also working on all those TV specials and licensing deals.

Schulz has been criticized for overdoing the merchandising that helped his creation earn more than a billion dollars a year. But Michaelis said the cartoonist was generous to licensees and adamant about product quality.

Also, Schulz was helpful to many aspiring cartoonists and almost always made time for interviews with even tiny newspapers.

But there were dichotomies in Schulz's personality. The book says he was self-effacing and kind but also egotistic and capable of being mean. And Schulz was not the "simple" guy he called himself. "How could someone come up with a complex comic and not be a complex man?" Michaelis asked rhetorically, adding that Schulz's competitive nature helped him succeed but made him play sports too aggressively and cuttingly disparage some cartoonists.

In addition, Michaelis writes of Schulz's frequent melancholy and the nursing of sometimes exaggerated grudges. For instance, the Minnesota-born Schulz said one reason Donna Johnson (the model for the Little Red-Haired Girl) didn't marry him was that her mother disliked him. The author found that the mother actually liked Schulz, but Donna decided on her own to marry another man. Michaelis did stress that Schulz's brooding was creative fuel for "Peanuts," which often had dark humor.

Among the other revelations in the book:

-- Schulz's cancer-stricken mother told her son in the early 1940s that if the family got another dog, it should be named "Snupi," a Norwegian term of endearment.

-- Not long before "Peanuts" began in 1950 in seven papers, Schulz worked with a dwarf-sized woman. Her body type and resilient nature influenced the way characters such as Charlie Brown looked and acted.

-- When nominated by "Beetle Bailey" creator Mort Walker of King Features Syndicate for National Cartoonists Society membership, Schulz was initially turned down -- possibly because he was a quiet guy who didn't drink.

-- Schulz wed Joyce Halverson in 1951, but they backdated the union to 1949 in documents to make it seem like her child from a brief previous marriage was also Schulz's biological child.

-- By 1970, "Peanuts" books made Schulz the fourth best-selling author of the 20th century (just ahead of John Steinbeck).

-- As Schulz's marriage to Joyce was unraveling in 1970, he began an affair with a much younger woman named Tracey, who later turned down his marriage proposal.

-- When Schulz in 1977 refused to sign a new syndicate contract unless he got ownership of "Peanuts," United secretly hired an artist to draw several months of the strip in case it replaced him. New, more enlightened leadership spiked that plan and gave Schulz the rights to his creation.

-- When Lynn Johnston told Schulz that Farley the dog would die in "For Better or for Worse," Schulz threatened to have Snoopy hit by a truck if Johnston went though with the plan. So the Universal Press Syndicate creator kept the timing of Farley's death a secret from "Sparky," as Schulz was known to friends and family.

Asked by E&P last month about the 1995 incident, Johnston confirmed it. But despite some tension in their relationship and Johnston's awareness of the contrasts in Schulz's personality, the two were friends.

Johnston, whose strip often finished higher than "Peanuts" in 1990s reader polls, said Michaelis "did amazing research. He talked to everybody."

Jean Schulz, the cartoonist's second wife, agreed. "What I'm grateful about is the research David was able to do over several critical years right after Sparky died, digging into archives and interviewing people no longer here," she told E&P. Michaelis' archives, Jean added, "will come to the museum and be available for future researchers and biographers."

She was referring to the 2002-opened, Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Charles M. Schulz Museum that she was heavily involved in founding. Schulz spent much of his adult life in or near Santa Rosa, where he was known for various charitable endeavors.

Schulz's first wife Joyce brought Santa Rosa another major attraction: an ice arena opened in 1969 that became a nearby place to go for Schulz (who could be travel-averse) when he wasn't working in his studio.

Michaelis, perhaps the first writer since the 1973 Schulz divorce to interview Joyce about her life with Sparky, said she didn't get enough credit for her accomplishments (such as the arena) but got more than her share of blame for the marriage breakup.

"Schulz and Peanuts" is more sympathetic to Joyce than her husband in describing their marriage. Is that because Michaelis met Joyce but never Sparky? "I interviewed her so late that I had already done most of my research on the marriage," he replied. "She ratified my sense of things." Michaelis, whose book notes that the 1973-2000 union with Jean was happier, said not meeting Schulz helped him do the book objectively.

One way Michaelis learned about Schulz was by reading every "Peanuts" comic from 1950 to 2000. He knew many of the strips would be autobiographical, but said he was "stunned they were THAT autobiographical." One example: When Schulz's first marriage is ending, Charlie Brown rids his baseball team of the bossy Lucy, who was partly modeled on Joyce. "Without Joyce there would not be Lucy, and without Lucy there would be a lesser 'Peanuts,'" said Michaelis. "Schulz's life and work would have been markedly different without Joyce."

In the book, many incidents from Schulz's life are juxtaposed with "Peanuts" strips reflecting those incidents.

How did Michaelis, 50, end up writing the book? A "Peanuts" lover growing up, he said he read an obituary of Schulz and thought the cartoonist would make a great subject for an in-depth biography. But the Manhattan-based author felt he had no connection with Jean to approach her about it.

It turns out there was quite an indirect connection. Michaelis wrote the biography of N.C. Wyeth -- the father of artist Andrew Wyeth, who knew the book-loving Schulz. Michaelis was told that the last book Schulz read was ... his biography of N.C. Wyeth.

Since 2000, "Peanuts" reruns have occupied comic slots coveted by young cartoonists struggling to break into print, just like Schulz struggled in the 1940s. Michaelis usually prefers new content, but does enjoy the reruns. "One of the true joys of my life," he said, "is to read 'Peanuts' in the newspaper as if it were happening now."

***

The above story first appeared in E&P's October print magazine, which was published one week ago. Today, Schulz's oldest son, Monte, responded more to the "Schulz and Peanuts" book than Jean Schulz had in the E&P print article. Below is a summary of Monte's comments criticizing the biography.

Monte said Michaelis paid too much attention to the few examples of his father's unkind behavior and not enough to the cartoonist's overall kindness. He added that his father was not as melancholy as Michaelis made him seem and not overly aggressive when participating in sports like hockey.

"I played hockey for 30 years, and dad was well within the normal range [of aggression]," said Monte, a novelist based in California.

Monte also told E&P that Michaelis devoted too many pages to the affair with Tracey and too few pages to Schulz's happy second marriage, the cartoonist's children and his friends.

"The 28 pages on the affair were excessive -- just a lot about a little," said Monte. "David seemed obsessed by it."

Monte said the facts in the book he disputes include Michaelis writing that a pond was built near the Schulz house for the cartoonist's father Carl to fish in (Monte said the pond was built after Carl died) and Michaelis writing about a housekeeper working in the Schulz household in the late 1960s when she had been gone several years by then.

"I really like David," said Monte, but he believes Michaelis emphasized the negative too much in the book. For instance, the author talked about many trips Jean took alone, but barely mentioned the trips she took with Schulz, said Monte. Perhaps Michaelis was trying too hard not to write a "fluff or fan piece," commented Monte.

Michaelis left material out of the book that didn't fit the author's "thesis," added Monte. That thesis, according to Monte, was that Schulz was traumatized by the death of his mother and was a lonely youth who got little support from other people and thus grew up to be a not-so-well-adjusted adult who wanted to prove to the world that he could be successful.

Monte said Michaelis "psychoanalyzed" Schulz a lot in the book despite never having met him. The son disputed Michaelis' comment in the E&P story about how it was an advantage as a Schulz biographer not to have met his subject. Monte said not knowing Schulz personally left Michaelis open to "being manipulated" by some of the people he interviewed for the book.

He also said the book made Schulz seem like distant father. "I never, ever felt a lack of affection," recalled the son. "I loved my father and had a wonderfully close relationship with him. Nearly all of the fun stuff we [the Schulz children] did with our father was left out of the book."

But, Monte concluded, Michaelis has the First Amendment right to do the book.