In this issue:
\n
\n* LUCY MUST BE TRADED ON FRIDAY
\n
\n* THE EARLIEST BRITISH PEANUTS BOOK
\n
\n* STRAIGHTENING OUT THE DARNDEST THINGS
\n
\n* NEW TO THE AAUGH.COM LIBRARY
\n
\n* NOW RERUN IS A SWINGIN’ GUY<\/p>\n
Usually, this newsletter is filled with announcements of
\nnew and upcoming Peanuts books. However, the only news that
\nI have about upcoming books is that “IT WAS A DARK AND
\nSTORMY NIGHT, SNOOPY”, coming in March, is indeed a
\nstrip reprint rather than a reprint of the book SNOOPY
\nAND “IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT”.<\/p>\n
But hey, this newsletter was never meant to be just about
\nnew books, it’s also supposed to be a look at existing
\nbooks. So here’s the “no new books” edition of the
\nAAUGH.com newsletter!<\/p>\n
\n============================================================<\/p>\n
LUCY MUST BE TRADED ON FRIDAY<\/p>\n
Just a quick reminder to US readers that the new Peanuts
\nspecial LUCY MUST BE TRADED, CHARLIE BROWN is slated to
\nair on Friday, at the curious late time of 9:00 PM
\n(8:00 Central Time) on your ABC station.
\n
\n============================================================<\/p>\n
THE EARLIEST BRITISH PEANUTS BOOK<\/p>\n
Someone recently steered me toward what appears to be the very
\nfirst British Peanuts book, and I quickly landed a copy
\nfor myself. The book is entitled simply PEANUTS, although
\nyou’re apt to find it listed as A DAILY SKETCH PUBLICATION
\nPEANUTS, because that is the full cover text. This book,
\npublished by the newspaper The Daily Sketch, isn’t a
\nreprint of the first American Peanuts book (also entitled
\nPEANUTS), but is rather reprints about 2\/3s of the pages
\nfrom the second American book, MORE PEANUTS. The front
\ncover reuses the image if Lucy and Charlie Brown walking
\nfrom the front cover of More Peanuts. However, they
\ndon’t use the original back cover image of More Peanuts.
\nThat back cover shows the toys that Lucy and CB are
\npulling (the real joke of the piece — one of the toys
\nwas a skunk.) Because of this, they’ve erased the string from
\nLucy’s hand and left just an inexplicable short segment
\nof string in CB’s. An image of Snoopy walking alongside
\nthe two has also been added to the cover.<\/p>\n
There is no date to be found on the book (apparently a
\ncommon problem with books published by The Daily Sketch.)
\nObviously, if it reprints More Peanuts, it cannot be
\nfrom before that book’s publication date of 1954.
\nJudging from style, format, and condition, I suspect it’s
\nnot much later than that. The pages aren’t the size of
\nthe Holt books, but rather the smaller height size of the
\nFawcett Crest books.<\/p>\n
One oddity is that the book credits the world copyright
\nto King Features. I really don’t know the history of the
\ninternational syndication rights to Peanuts, so it may
\nbe that United Feature Syndicate (now better known as
\nUnited Media, owners of Peanuts) licensed out the non-U.S.
\nrights to the better-established King Features. If so, this
\ncould help establish the book’s publication date. On the
\nother hand, it may just be goof-up, as the Daily Sketch
\nhad also published a book of Blondie, a King Features
\nstrip.
\n
\n============================================================<\/p>\n
STRAIGHTENING OUT THE DARNDEST THINGS<\/p>\n
Schulz illustrated two books by Art Linkletter, KIDS
\nSAY THE DARNDEST THINGS (1957) and KIDS STILL SAY THE
\nDARNDEST THINGS (1961). The illustrations from the
\nfirst book were reused in a revised edition, entitled
\nTHE NEW KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS.<\/p>\n
Until recently, I had believed that the revisions for
\nthe revised edition were done in 1995. Silly me,
\nfalling for their trick! The revisions were done for
\na 1978 release, which says “NEW KIDS” on the cover
\nbut leaves the “NEW” out of the title on the spine.
\nI’ve just added a copy of the 1978 version to the
\nAAUGH.com reference library (and hey, it’s signed
\nby Art Linkletter himself).<\/p>\n
The 1995 version appears to use all of the same
\nprimary text as the 1978 version. I didn’t check it
\nword for word, but looking at key places, they didn’t
\neven update where Art said that his son is about to be
\na father, even though 17 years had passed. And then,
\nhey, I think to check the 1957 version, and the same
\nson was ready for kids then. Here’s a tip, folks:
\nif you’ve waited 38 years to have your kids, odds
\nare that the best time has passed you by.<\/p>\n
The only updates I detected were in Linkletter’s
\nintroduction, which was created for the 1978 version
\nand somewhat rewritten for the 1995 version. So in 1978,
\nArt said that he “updated the whole thing with some of
\nmy own thoughts about this ‘electric generation’ which
\nhas been so changed by the six-hours-a-day schedule
\nof TV watching that has become the average in the U.S.
\nover the past ten years.” But in 1995, he “updated the
\nwhole thing with some of my own thoughts about this
\n‘electronic generation’ which has been so
\nchanged by the six-hours-a-day schedule of TV watching
\nthat seems to have become the average in the
\nUnited States.” So one generation was electric, the
\nnext was electronic, but they both watched the same
\namount of TV!<\/p>\n
(Yeah, yeah, it’s more detail than anyone cares about.
\nI’m a geek on these things.)
\n
\n============================================================
\n
\nNEW TO THE AAUGH.COM LIBRARY<\/p>\n
Also recently added to the AAUGH.com reference library is
\nan Uncorrected Proof Copy of KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS.
\nSuch uncorrected proofs are used both in the proofreading
\nand verification of the book and, more importantly, in
\nsending out early copies to reviewers. My proof is of the
\nBritish edition of the book, which merely reprints the
\nUS edition that came out a year early. As such, there
\naren’t any surprising omissions or additions to be found
\nhere, alas. Still, it’s an odd and rare thing, and we
\nlike having those in the library!<\/p>\n
Then there’s ARE YOU OLD ENOUGH TO READ THIS BOOK:
\nREFLECTIONS ON MIDLIFE, which lists Schulz as one of a
\nnumber of interesting people invovled on the cover.
\nActually, the piece is a 3.5 page interview with
\nSchulz, which starts on page 20 (there’s no way to
\nidentify the piece from the table of contents.)
\nThe body of the interview was edited to be a single stream
\nof conversation from Schulz, as if he wrote an
\narticle on where he is. Topics include his fears of
\nbeing boring and the things that keep him in touch with
\nthe world. And for those of you trying to get a clearer
\npicture of Schulz’s path through religion: “I’m a firm
\nbeliever in the Kingdom of God, but I don’t know about
\nthe afterlife — that baffles me. I think life is a
\nmystery. I have no idea why we’re here, where it all
\ncame from or where we’re all going, and I don’t think
\nanybody knows.” This interview was originally published
\nin 1995 in New Choices magazine, before being reprinted
\nin this 1997 book.<\/p>\n
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NOW RERUN IS A SWINGIN’ GUY<\/p>\n
Remember the previous newsletter where I complained about
\nthe folks at Camp Snoopy selling a Rerun t-shirt by
\nclaiming it was a Linus t-shirt? Well, they’ve fixed it
\nnow… and I suspect that AAUGH.com newsletter readers
\nwere the cause! Thanks to those of you out there who
\nsent them notes.
\n<\/p>\n