As noted in this article, the family of Charles M. Schulz is not happy with an upcoming biography of the creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. They gave total access and cooperation to David Michaelis so he could write Schulz and Peanuts. Now, they're giving a lot of publicity and attention to the book by announcing that it unfairly stresses the dark side of "Sparky" Schulz. Aren't you more intrigued to know that it delves into Schulz's affairs and disturbances? Even if you aren't, most of us are.
I didn't know Schulz that well, though the six or seven hours I spent with him total over the years are six or seven more than Michaelis did. I found "Sparky" to be genial, very courteous and somewhat more complex than the shallow guy that was often depicted in articles about him. He had a certain arrogance of ego that I considered understandable, given what he had achieved. It was probably less than that of most people with similar bank accounts and accomplishment. Yeah, he thought the world concurred that he was doing the greatest comic strip ever produced and that he'd invented the most popular characters in U.S. popular fiction…but it's not like he was all alone in that viewpoint. Probably the worst things I ever heard about him from his close associates were tales of him handling collaborative endeavors (dealings with the syndicate, production of animation or merchandise, etc.) the same way he handled his strip, which was that no one's opinions mattered but his own. Again, given what he achieved, that's not so surprising. Or awful.
I've ordered the book — which you can do from Amazon by clicking here — but it will join my "to be read" pile, which is now about the height of the Space Needle in Seattle. By the time I get to it, I expect to have heard the opinions of many who were closer to Schulz than I was but not as close as his family. I'll let you know how many grains of salt I decide to afford it.