A very important link that has been floating around over the last 10 days or so. Jeannie Schulz finally speaks out on the David Michaelis bio of her husband, Charles, and explains what he got wrong:
I was married to Charles Schulz for 26 years, and in all that time together, plus in 45 years worth of interviews that I have read, and additional autobiographical material Sparky wrote for the 25th anniversary book, and subsequent books, I never heard Sparky express any doubt of the love both his parents had for him and he, in turn, spoke often of his love for his “little kids”, and his stories were full of games with them and normal parental memories. Unfortunately, David Michaelis took bits of information, and without double-checking it, printed opinion as fact and judgment.
There is an issue that Michaelis brings up a number of times in the Schulz biography which has completely baffled me in that he seems to take an accusatory tone that Sparky didn’t get therapy for his “problems”. I am not sure how it is attributed, but the statement is that Sparky didn’t go to therapy because he was afraid it would alter his creativity (or words to that effect). Sparky did, in fact, go to two different therapists at two different times. But that is not the point I want to make.
Sparky told me early on in our marriage when in fact he WAS going to a therapist to combat his “travel anxiety” (I think it helped in that it gave him an understanding that lots of people feel this way and it gave him a framework so that he could devise strategies to make it better.) That it was his first wife, Joyce, who suggested that he was afraid to go to therapy because it would stifle his creativity. He always pooh-poohed her statement but it but it obviously sounded logical to some people and stuck in their minds. It seems that as Sparky is not here to explain, that anyone writing about it would ask more questions and seek additional perspective.
Honestly, I was searching the net for a contact to to the only person
I felt I could trust, with a cartoon invented by doodling around with some
freehand stuff on the computor that I thought might make my mom smile.
Im sure, just being human, that Mr. Shulz developed his characters to share with us knowing it was a gift of obligation and pursued it in that way.
I remember when there where question’s rasied about Bob Hope’s marriage fedility late in his life. Both of these people dedicated themselves
to the fine art delivering a much needed deversion to us all. For all the laughs, insights and hope for the human condition offered, can it be possible to say anything but thanks. To those that wondor…..Yes, of course I’m still going to run my un- solicitated cartoon idea thru this web site to Mrs. Suhlz for feedback, because that’s why I came to this website in the first place.