Me and Charlie Brown archives

When digging into those Schulz/Kelly letters, at first I missed what else it is that the Minnesota History Center has on hand – the original paste-ups and other material related to Me and Charlie Brown: a Book of Good Griefs. This is a book that was written by the original Charlie Brown, Schulz’s coworker at Art Instruction whose name Schulz repeatedly used in Li’l Folks and then as the central character in Peanuts. (Here’s a page about Brown, for the curious; he ended up running a juvenile detention center, so was involved with kids in his own way.) I wonder if their collection of materials has any of the content that was intended for books 2 and 3 of the autobiography, which were planned but never released. (Probably not.) Me and Charlie Brown is awkwardly written, and only a small portion of the book involves Brown’s relationship with Schulz and Peanuts (it is much more concerned with matters of faith and alcoholism), so this is a pretty deep dive concern that few would be interested in, but I can’t be the only one, can I? Well, if you’re one of the others, and you happen to find yourself in Minnesota, this is something you can look into!

 

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 …