Patriotic Peanuts
- By : Nat
- Category : Classic finds, Reviews
For a long time, I wasn’t certain that the book What Makes This Country So Great? actually existed. The only copy I had ever seen of this miniature Hallmark hardcover was in a display case at the Snoopy Gift Shop in Santa Rosa, and the folks I talked to hadn’t seen a copy. From time to time, I’d do a used book search for this item to no avail. I reckoned there was a chance the displayed copy was a mockup for an item that was never actually produced. However, last week I was exchanging emails with a collector who specialized in this sort of small hardcover, and goodness gracious, he had a copy. So I tried a used book search yet again, and lo and behold, there were four copies on the market.
Now, one of those copies is mine.
It’s an odd patriotic book, most notably in that it never mentions which country it’s being patriotic about. The content of the book leaves no doubt which country is being discussed – it’s just a short storybook featuring Peanuts characters listing the people they think made “this country” great. For example, Linus invokes “George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Polk… …and Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Simon and Garfunkel, Abe Lincoln, George Washington Carver, and…” (The invocation of Simon and Garfunkel is particularly early; this was a 1972 book, and while the duet had already broken up, I don’t think they were ready to be writ into the history books just yet.)
Lucy interrupts with an all-female writer list (and I’m not surprised to find that she’s a fan of Ayn Rand’s uncompromising world view); Schroeder lists a bunch of American musicians, Frieda lists actresses (plus pro wrestler Gorgeous George), although her list does cite an “Irene Dahl” when I suspect she meant “Arlene Dahl”; Snoopy goes with famous dogs and an astronaut (plus early rockers Bill Haley and the Comets), and Peppermint Patty lists baseball stars. But ultimately, we learn that we are what makes “this country” great.
Even if you don’t recognize the name, there’s a more subtle suggestion of which country is being discussed; Charlie Brown in a blue shirt standing next to Linus in a red-and-white striped shirt invokes the U.S. flag. Still, a very cynical side of me suspects that the country goes unnamed simply to trick some Canadians into buying the book.
As with many little storybooks, this doesn’t feature new Schulz art. Instead, the characters are clearly pasted in from existing sources, with some of the same character drawings used repeatedly. This is handled slightly clumsily, with inconsistency in the characters’ relative sizes, and with different parts of the drawings having different line weights.
Meant as a little gift item (for the ever-popular Fourth Of July gift-giving season, I suspect), it does have a spot in the front to write in who the book is from and to. My copy was inscribed as being from “Santa” and to “Me”.
There are a couple of named lines of these little hardcovers. This volume is part of the Thoughtfulness Library line, which makes sense. After all, the other named line was the Ambassador Friendship Library, and it’s hard to consider someone boasting about how great their country is as being a friendly ambassador!
