What do you think?
Rate this book
Peanuts Revisited: Favorites Old and New
1959 Hardcover
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1959
4 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,023 books1,640 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 31, 2017
Loved these as a child, oddly melancholy as an adult.
April 22, 2020
Ah, the good ‘ole Peanuts gang! All the old favorites are here: Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, “Pig Pen,” Woodstock. These books used to be my dad’s, and some are pretty worn, but the memories I have with these books is priceless. It’s been fun to go through them again after years and years and get some good chuckles. My 7 and 9 year olds have also been loving them. It’s especially fun to hear my 7 year old bust out in deep belly laughs over something he finds funny. Who knew Charlie Brown and Snoopy would be bringing families together? Ha! Also, I think I’ll take up the phrase “good grief!” It’s a good one
December 18, 2020
A compact collection of Peanuts comics from 1955-1959. Schulz’s drawing style isn’t yet fully developed, nor his humour, nor indeed the characters, yet several long-running Peanuts themes are on display here in their early form, and the choice of strips is astute.
April 22, 2021
4 1/4 stars
March 23, 2024
Bought this last year in Bloomington but only just now got around to reading it bc Stuff You Should Know covered the classic comic
January 19, 2016
Can't go wrong with Peanuts, if you need a pick up. Great adult and kids book to have around.
December 11, 2025
What a delightful discovery. This book literally fell out of my closet as I was cleaning. It was wonderful to revisit some of the first strips written by Charles Schulz. My favorite - Lucy on roller skates zooming past Snoopy - still makes me laugh out loud. Truly an accidentally delightful read. I don't remember having this book.
January 1, 2021
LOVE IT
February 12, 2024
favorite quote:
________
"Well! You certainly look cheerful today, Charlie Brown."
"Oh yes... I'm not always depressed, you know... Every now and then I have a good day. It's between those 'nows and thens' where I have all my trouble!"
- "I Feel Lonely When I'm All Alone - Peanuts Revisited" (1959) Charles Schulz
________
"Well! You certainly look cheerful today, Charlie Brown."
"Oh yes... I'm not always depressed, you know... Every now and then I have a good day. It's between those 'nows and thens' where I have all my trouble!"
- "I Feel Lonely When I'm All Alone - Peanuts Revisited" (1959) Charles Schulz
November 3, 2019
Peanuts was, and probably still is, the biggest artistic influence in my life.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews