CMLE Reads Across MN: Only What’s Necessary

Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schultz and the Art of Peanuts, by Chip Kidd

 

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, and it also has many interesting books. In this series, we are sharing some of the books we like from Minnesota, or Minnesota authors.

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our books are set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota!

I was always such a Peanuts fan! (Does everyone remember watching Peanuts specials in your jammies with your brother, with only the Dolly Madison snack cake commercials??? Not just me, I’m sure!)  And Charles Schultz is a Minnesota author we share with the world of Peanuts fans out there.  If you have read all the other Peanuts books, you will want to check out this exploration of the archives Schultz left behind.

From Amazon: “Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) believed that the key to cartooning was to take out the extraneous details and leave in only what’s necessary. For 50 years, from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, Schulz wrote and illustrated Peanuts, the single most popular and influential comic strip in the world. In all, 17,897 strips were published, making it “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being,” according to Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. For Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts, renowned designer Chip Kidd was granted unprecedented access to the extraordinary archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California. Reproducing the best of the Peanuts newspaper strip,all shot from the original art by award-winning photographer Geoff Spear, Only What’s Necessary also features exclusive, rare, and unpublished original art and developmental work—much of which has never been seen before.”