Today’s Peanuts-related reading was To M*A*S*H and Back, the 2009 autobiography of actor Gary Burghoff.

While best known for portraying Radar O’Reilly in the film M*A*S*H and the TV show M*A*S*H and the TV show AfterM*A*S*H and the never-picked-up-for-a-series TV pilot W*A*L*T*E*R, the part of the book that I wanted to read (and, I confess, skipped right to) was on his work as the first actor to play Charlie Brown in stage musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”. And yes, it’s in there, taking up the bulk of pages 75 through 89, told happily and wittily, how an unlikely recommendation got him an audition for the role, how a faux pas and a being the odd man out helped him win the role. He talks about how the play got written (there was no script; they were given the songs, and some book collections of the strips, and the cast found appropriate strips and worked them into the show we know).

For those who have read a number of autobiographies of former celebrities, you might recognize that a lot of them fall into one of two categories, either the “I was having all the rampant sexual adventures that you can dream of me having, although the people I supposedly had them with will deny it” category or the “after my career was over, I found religion” category. This is the latter, with him regularly sprinkling in references to how he had not yet recognized divine plan in his life. Eventually, we will get to him hit business and personal failures, hitting bottom, then finding religion – in this case, as a Jehovah’s Witness. But as books in that category go, this one seems to do a pretty good job of covering the stuff that you came to the biography for (which is not to say that excludes any interest in his religious journey). And don’t let the subtitle “My Life in Poems and Songs” scare you off. Yes, the verses are in there; no, they are not the bulk of the book.

The book is available both in paperback and for the Kindle and Nook.

I really feel like there’s room for a book just on the history of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, given its interesting path to creation, its storied history, and its unique place in the pantheon of American musicals. I hope we see that book someday. (And I also hope that the Schulz Museum tries to take advantage of the fact that this person with a key role in the history of Charlie Brown lives just a few hours drive away. It would be good to see them organize some sort of an event.)

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