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Happiness Is a Sad Song
Originally published as part of the Peanuts Happiness Is... series, this small book could only have been written by Charles M. Schulz. Who else could pull happiness from heartbreak?
Now this celebratory edition makes the simple wisdom of Peanuts available to a new generation of readers. Millions loved the original series, which began with Happiness Is a Warm Puppy, and millions more will cheer to see these little gems return. Now more than ever, we need the simple exuberance that Charles Schulz and his gang of Peanut-sized philosophers so perfectly express. Happiness is holding this book in your hand ... again.
Now this celebratory edition makes the simple wisdom of Peanuts available to a new generation of readers. Millions loved the original series, which began with Happiness Is a Warm Puppy, and millions more will cheer to see these little gems return. Now more than ever, we need the simple exuberance that Charles Schulz and his gang of Peanut-sized philosophers so perfectly express. Happiness is holding this book in your hand ... again.
72 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,035 books1,654 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 4, 2025
9/30/16:
That's not right. Everybody knows happiness is a warm gun; the Beatles tell us so.
Let's start spooky reading month with this age-old horror classic.
This is another book the kids have apparently torn up. Front cover cleanly ripped off, back cover not so cleanly. Well, it can be taped back together. I'm not sure when it happened, probably a few years ago. The youngest is six now, so they should be over that kind of silliness... I hope. They're certainly old enough to know better, and I'm pleased they don't treat books this way anymore. This was mama's book when she was a little girl. It survived her. It survived me. It survived my sister, but it was not up to the task of surviving my sister's brood. Alas.
Sages advise us to never judge a book by its cover, and we should heed their advice. This book used to terrify me. Seriously, when I was a child this thing made me cry. Just look at this cover.
You probably don't think this is such terrifying shit, but you're not looking at it right. See that mess to the left of Linus which is clearly his blanket, or a shadow, or something? Or maybe he piddled on the floor. I don't know. But there's one thing it probably isn't. I used to think it was the power cord to the radio on the right, and it had slithered around behind him, and it was about to grab him, and the radio was going eat him. Why? I have no idea. And you can tell from Linus' face that he knows what's up and that he's done for. I was inconsolable about it all, refused to believe it was anything other than a man-eating radio, and cried to my mother every time I saw the cover. I'm at a loss to explain why she didn't have me committed then and there, but I think all adults assume all two and three-year-olds are lunatics, and give them more leeway than they ought to. I wasn't exposed to scary movies, but these were the things I thought about. What kind of two or three-year-old has these kinds of fantasies? I do, that's who!
And then there's the back cover...
Mine has this picture, but it's in black and white on a blue background (so I guess it's technically black and blue), and there's no caption. So basically we have Linus looking like he's had his face busted in and all his teeth knocked out save two. Obviously turning the book over did nothing to placate my meltdowns because Linus is fucking terrifying as hell!
I'm happy to report that I eventually grew out of that nonsense. I faced my fear, and looked inside the book which is nowhere near as scary except for those two pictures, and by the time I was 23 or so I no longer felt any uneasiness around it. I'm 37 now, and just read this again like any sane and rational person would. I can scoff at my old fears. I've come a long way.
As for the contents, they're great. Lots of good things that help one appreciate the small things in life, though a couple of them are sneaky efforts by Schultz to get kids to be good and mind their p's and q's such as "Happiness is surprising your dad by shoveling the sidewalk before he gets home" and "Happiness is singing 'Blessed Assurance' at camp meeting." Well, I'm cool with those, but I know some people who would take offense, so proceed with caution if you're into more modern child rearing methods that don't support work and churchy things. I didn't see anything in the rest of them which should raise anyone's ire too terribly, but I know some people will take offense to anything.
I'm glad only the covers were torn up. Happiness is finding a damaged book is still legible.
That's not right. Everybody knows happiness is a warm gun; the Beatles tell us so.
Let's start spooky reading month with this age-old horror classic.
This is another book the kids have apparently torn up. Front cover cleanly ripped off, back cover not so cleanly. Well, it can be taped back together. I'm not sure when it happened, probably a few years ago. The youngest is six now, so they should be over that kind of silliness... I hope. They're certainly old enough to know better, and I'm pleased they don't treat books this way anymore. This was mama's book when she was a little girl. It survived her. It survived me. It survived my sister, but it was not up to the task of surviving my sister's brood. Alas.
Sages advise us to never judge a book by its cover, and we should heed their advice. This book used to terrify me. Seriously, when I was a child this thing made me cry. Just look at this cover.
You probably don't think this is such terrifying shit, but you're not looking at it right. See that mess to the left of Linus which is clearly his blanket, or a shadow, or something? Or maybe he piddled on the floor. I don't know. But there's one thing it probably isn't. I used to think it was the power cord to the radio on the right, and it had slithered around behind him, and it was about to grab him, and the radio was going eat him. Why? I have no idea. And you can tell from Linus' face that he knows what's up and that he's done for. I was inconsolable about it all, refused to believe it was anything other than a man-eating radio, and cried to my mother every time I saw the cover. I'm at a loss to explain why she didn't have me committed then and there, but I think all adults assume all two and three-year-olds are lunatics, and give them more leeway than they ought to. I wasn't exposed to scary movies, but these were the things I thought about. What kind of two or three-year-old has these kinds of fantasies? I do, that's who!
And then there's the back cover...
Mine has this picture, but it's in black and white on a blue background (so I guess it's technically black and blue), and there's no caption. So basically we have Linus looking like he's had his face busted in and all his teeth knocked out save two. Obviously turning the book over did nothing to placate my meltdowns because Linus is fucking terrifying as hell!
I'm happy to report that I eventually grew out of that nonsense. I faced my fear, and looked inside the book which is nowhere near as scary except for those two pictures, and by the time I was 23 or so I no longer felt any uneasiness around it. I'm 37 now, and just read this again like any sane and rational person would. I can scoff at my old fears. I've come a long way.
As for the contents, they're great. Lots of good things that help one appreciate the small things in life, though a couple of them are sneaky efforts by Schultz to get kids to be good and mind their p's and q's such as "Happiness is surprising your dad by shoveling the sidewalk before he gets home" and "Happiness is singing 'Blessed Assurance' at camp meeting." Well, I'm cool with those, but I know some people who would take offense, so proceed with caution if you're into more modern child rearing methods that don't support work and churchy things. I didn't see anything in the rest of them which should raise anyone's ire too terribly, but I know some people will take offense to anything.
I'm glad only the covers were torn up. Happiness is finding a damaged book is still legible.
January 27, 2023
Surprise abounds when you open the cover and find out that you were actually the one that gifted this book to a family member all of 16 years ago! Schulz starts with the beginning of the day and finishes with the end of the day. Most of the happiness is related to children, with nostalgia value for adults, but there are ones that are more deeply relatable to adults.
January 1, 2017
I try not to purchase EVERY secondhand Peanuts book that I stumble upon, but this one's cover and title were too good to pass up.
It's a pretty short and simple book; a good Peanuts blend of sweet and melancholy.
Some pages are endearingly outdated:
"Happiness is singing 'Blessed Assurance' at Camp Meeting." (???) (illustration: Linus singing, eyes closed and mouth open wide)
and
"Happiness is wearing the band from your Dad's cigar." (illustration: Peppermint Patty admiring a ring-like object on her finger)
My favorite part of this book is the (unintentionally?) ominous final page, which has no accompanying image: "Happiness is knowing you've made it through one more day." True.
It's a pretty short and simple book; a good Peanuts blend of sweet and melancholy.
Some pages are endearingly outdated:
"Happiness is singing 'Blessed Assurance' at Camp Meeting." (???) (illustration: Linus singing, eyes closed and mouth open wide)
and
"Happiness is wearing the band from your Dad's cigar." (illustration: Peppermint Patty admiring a ring-like object on her finger)
My favorite part of this book is the (unintentionally?) ominous final page, which has no accompanying image: "Happiness is knowing you've made it through one more day." True.
December 1, 2013
this is a short read. It is a story about all the different things that can make someone happy. I love this book because it is easy to read and it is timeless. No matter how old the book is it will never get old. I would love to use this book as an example of how different forms of writing can touch us in different ways. Although these are just simple quotes some of these quotes are relatable to children and adults. In this book everyone can find a quote that defines happiness for them.
November 15, 2008
My favorites:
"Happiness is waking up, looking at the clock and finding that you still have two hours left to sleep."
"Happiness is having something to look forward to."
I think that Happiness is reading a Peanuts comic book.
"Happiness is waking up, looking at the clock and finding that you still have two hours left to sleep."
"Happiness is having something to look forward to."
I think that Happiness is reading a Peanuts comic book.
June 25, 2020
I just love a good old fashion story!
May 6, 2017
Charmingly amusing, but somewhat American. Nothing is perfect, but I suppose that’s the spirit of Peanuts.
July 18, 2017
A cute little book that hits all the right notes. Cute drawings of peanuts characters to illustrate each happiness phrase
October 15, 2017
aff amo tanto peanuts
February 3, 2017
A small gem of a book, a bit "too American" in some ways. What the hell is "Blessed Assurance"?!? Sounds like a religious cult thing to do, singing this at camp. Anyway, as I said, for someone who did not grow up in the US, a bit too American...
Interestingly, I think some of the drawings would be heavily criticized for line weight. Heavy lines in inappropriate places, etc. I know if I had drawn stuff like this, my cartooning teacher would tsk tsk at me and ask me to correct the line weight under the chin, tracing the belly facing up, and so on.
The simplicity of the drawings is just brilliant, though. And the square-ness is just perfect. Square = happiness :) (well, circle = happiness, but circular books are difficult to bind!)
Interestingly, I think some of the drawings would be heavily criticized for line weight. Heavy lines in inappropriate places, etc. I know if I had drawn stuff like this, my cartooning teacher would tsk tsk at me and ask me to correct the line weight under the chin, tracing the belly facing up, and so on.
The simplicity of the drawings is just brilliant, though. And the square-ness is just perfect. Square = happiness :) (well, circle = happiness, but circular books are difficult to bind!)
October 13, 2011
Even though this book was short, I still loved it.
It contains many short quotes, some a little dated, some timeless. When I finished reading it, I was filled with regret that I didn't read even slower, or that I didn't keep more of the books (I bought 2 and gave 1 away as a birthday present). Selfish of me, but that's how much I loved the book.
I just wish that their Publisher is sold more in Singapore.
It contains many short quotes, some a little dated, some timeless. When I finished reading it, I was filled with regret that I didn't read even slower, or that I didn't keep more of the books (I bought 2 and gave 1 away as a birthday present). Selfish of me, but that's how much I loved the book.
I just wish that their Publisher is sold more in Singapore.
August 26, 2012
Another cute collection of "Happiness is..." saying from Schulz featuring the Peanuts gang. I have the 1st paperback printing from Scholastic, from 1971. The cover has a white background with turquoise and purple border and purple text.
June 4, 2013
A cute collection of Peanuts cartoons; it makes a thoughtful gift.
April 10, 2016
lets be happy...:))
December 19, 2014
Timeless!
June 18, 2008
My godmother bought me this book when I was little. I loved it... the original was Purple though.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews