A Letter to Charles Schulz

One of the things I really like about the book Letters of Note is that it includes a lot of correspondence between adults and children.

As you mentioned before, the kid who wrote to the Australian equivalent of NASA, right?

There are a couple of letters from cartoonists to kids who’ve written them.

I don’t know where they found the time, but one of them is from Charles Schultz, who’s responding to a kid’s suggestion that he get rid of an early, early character in the peanut strip called Charlotte Braun.

Right.

And he writes back and he tells the kid, basically, that’s a good idea. I’m going to do it. But her death is on your head.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

But here’s the thing. My little brother, Jimmy, wrote to Charles Schultz, and he wrote him years ago to say that he had a favorite blanket, just like Linus. And when he runs, the blanket flaps and it sounds like pigeons taking off.

He wrote Charles Schultz that, and Charles Schultz wrote him back.

Oh, that’s wonderful.

Isn’t that something?

That is wonderful. And included a little illustration, too, for my brother, Jim.

Where did they find the time to do that?

I know you and I both do try to write back to as many people as possible. It itself is a full-time job.

Absolutely.

But I appreciate the position of writing back to the kids. We do try to always respond to the children when they write. We try.

And there’s a sensitivity about the letters to children. I noticed that Sean Usher, the compiler of this book, Letters of Note, has really been careful to make sure that there’s no meanness there. That when people are talking to each other, if there is meanness, it’s because they’re equals.

Right?

Right.

It’s not somebody beating up on another person who’s helpless or weak or in a disadvantaged position.

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