Summary
It's Christmas time, Charlie Brown! Christmas is a joyous time of year--and what could be more fun than sharing it with dear friends? Celebrate the season with the Peanuts characters you've loved so long. Sing carols with Charlie Brown and company around Schroeder's piano. See Snoopy's festively decorated doghouse. Find out if Lucy's been naughty or nice. Discover if snow has any effect on Pig Pen's "aura." And learn about the true meaning of Christmas with Linus. Just in time for the holiday season, A Peanuts Christmas is the complete collection of Christmas strips from 1950 to 1999. For the first time ever this delightful book brings together nearly fifty years of comfort and joy with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang.
Charles Monroe Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 26, 1922. He started drawing at a young age, practicing with popular characters such as Popeye. When he was 15, one of his pictures appeared as an illustration in "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" He took a correspondence course with Art Instruction Inc., where he later taught, and served in the Army during World War II.
The Peanuts (originally called Li'l Folks, a name that was changed by the United Feature Syndicate) began syndication on October 2, 1950, when it appeared in seven newspapers. Schulz's work went on to become the most popular syndicated comic strip of all time, appearing in 2600 papers in 75 countries around the world. Schulz drew everyone of the more than 18,250 Peanuts strips himself and his contract stipulated that no one else would ever draw them.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts Gang also appear in a number of television specials, the first of which was A Charlie Brown Christmas (1964), created with animator Bill Melendez. It is one of the most watched and best loved television shows in history and winner of an Emmy and a Peabody.
Charles Schulz has been inducted into the Cartoonists Hall of Fame and won numerous awards. He was given Reuben Awards by the National Cartoonists Society in 1955 and 1964, the Yale Humor Award (1956), the School Bell Award from the National Education Society (1960), and the Ordre des Artes et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture. In 1990, his work was shown at the Louvre.
Schulz retired after being diagnosed with colon cancer. The final daily Peanuts strip appeared in January 3, 2000 and the final Sunday strip, along with a letter of thanks to his editors and fans, appeared on February 13, 2000. Schulz died in his home in Santa Rosa, California on February 12, 2000 within hours of the publication of his farewell strip.
(Bowker Author Biography)
