Relatively Charlie Brown

As a Peanuts book blogger, I’ve always enjoyed the category of things that look like Peanuts books but aren’t. I found two of them tonight… interestingly similar.

Who Are You Charlie Brown? a Search for Family is Wendy Brown’s search for information on her grandfather, one Charles Brown. That’s available as a print book from Zeus Publications, a bit of a vanity press operation. Meanwhile, the ebook In Search of Charlie Brown (published through Lulu, a self-publishing platform) is about a boy named Heaven who is looking for his hitherto-unknown half siblings.

Of course, our Charlie Brown was always perfectly aware of where his family was; it was Snoopy that sometimes had to go looking.

Not That Charlie Brown
The Mystery of the 1955 Charlie Brown

AAUGH Blog reader Caren (of CollectPeanuts.com ) knows I like chronicling non-Peanuts uses of the name “Charlie Brown”, so when she saw an eBay listing for a 1955 Charlie Brown record, she knew that she should sic me on it. Clearly, this is not Schulz’s Charlie Brown. The immediate thought …

Not That Charlie Brown
Those Other Charles Schulzes

Okay, so I search newspaper archives for unimportant things out of curiosity. And checking for pre-Sparky people named “Charles Schulz”, I found a fair amount, but the one which struck me was this obituary from 1900: It’s just the fact that this Charles Schulz had a son, Charles Schulz, who …

Not That Charlie Brown
Charlie Browns of the Cs

Digging through newspaper archives, I decided to delve into earlier Charlie Browns. These are just the ones that start with C from the 19th century: Crook (1822): Cricketeer (1860): Cairo-bound steamer (1862): Confederate prisoner (1862): Congressional candidate (1863): Concerning choice of spouse (1863): Coat borrower (1866): Captain (1867):   40 …