Monte Schulz Has His Say

This picture of Charles Schulz was taken on April 27, 1958, as he was preparing to move to California from Minnesota. Peanuts comic book artist Jim Sasseville and his wife Helga followed Schulz west, somewhat to Sasseville’s later regret. Note I said comic book artist. Schulz was the only one who ever drew the strip.

Monte Schulz made this comment on the Web site Cartoon Brew a couple of days ago, regarding the new biography of his father by David Michaelis.

The point of objection to this biography of my father is how much is simply untruthful, and deliberately so. There are many factual errors throughout the book; there are people who are give authority to speak about our family who have no insight to do so; and there are so many elements of my father’s life that David deliberately left out of the book, that it really is impossible for anyone outside of our family, or Dad’s circle of friends, to come to any genuine conclusions. I can tell you absolutely that he was not a depressed, melancholy person, nor was he unaffectionate and absent as a parent. Honestly, the quote I’ve really wanted to give the press, after reading both the early of the manuscript and the final book, is this: “The book is stupid, and David Michaelis is an idiot.” That said, I had a six year on-going conversation with him about this book, and like David quite a lot. But I was shocked to see the book that emerged, because it veered so drastically away from what he told us he intended to write. Which is why we’ve been so militant in our response. Incidentally, the material David edited out of the book is even more outrageous. The fact is, after reading the book, I decided I’d learned more about David Michaelis than I did about my dad. I found that interesting.