Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life

A one-of-a-kind celebration of America's greatest comic strip--and the life lessons it can teach us--from a stellar array of writers and artistsOver the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself.  In The Peanuts Papers, thirty-three writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture. These enchanting, affecting, and often quite personal essays show just how much Peanuts means to its many admirers—and the ways it invites us to ponder, in the words of Sarah Boxer, “how to survive and still be a decent human being” in an often bewildering world. Featuring essays, memoirs, poems, and two original comic strips, here is the ultimate reader’s companion for every Peanuts fan.Featuring:Jill Bialosky  Lisa Birnbach  Sarah Boxer Jennifer Finney Boylan  Ivan Brunetti  Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell  Rich Cohen  Gerald Early  Umberto Eco Jonathan Franzen  Ira Glass Adam Gopnik  David Hajdu  Bruce Handy  David Kamp  Maxine Hong Kingston Chuck Klosterman  Peter D. Kramer  Jonathan Lethem  Rick Moody  Ann Patchett  Kevin Powell Joe Queenan Nicole Rudick  George Saunders  Elissa Schappell  Seth  Janice Shapiro  Mona Simpson  Leslie Stein  Clifford Thompson  David L. Ulin  Chris Ware

A one-of-a-kind celebration of America's greatest comic strip--and the life lessons it can teach us--from a stellar array of writers and artistsOver the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself.  In The Peanuts Papers, thirty-three writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture. These enchanting, affecting, and often quite personal essays show just how much Peanuts means to its many admirers—and the ways it invites us to ponder, in the words of Sarah Boxer, “how to survive and still be a decent human being” in an often bewildering world. Featuring essays, memoirs, poems, and two original comic strips, here is the ultimate reader’s companion for every Peanuts fan.Featuring:Jill Bialosky  Lisa Birnbach  Sarah Boxer Jennifer Finney Boylan  Ivan Brunetti  Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell  Rich Cohen  Gerald Early  Umberto Eco Jonathan Franzen  Ira Glass Adam Gopnik  David Hajdu  Bruce Handy  David Kamp  Maxine Hong Kingston Chuck Klosterman  Peter D. Kramer  Jonathan Lethem  Rick Moody  Ann Patchett  Kevin Powell Joe Queenan Nicole Rudick  George Saunders  Elissa Schappell  Seth  Janice Shapiro  Mona Simpson  Leslie Stein  Clifford Thompson  David L. Ulin  Chris Ware