The Charlie Brown Dictionary by Charles M. Schulz

Contributed by Bryson Stohr on May 8th, 2022. Artwork published in

1973

The seventies called. They want their fancy Bookman Bold Swash swashes back.

The Charlie Brown Dictionary was based on Wendell W. Wright’s The Rainbow Dictionary from 1947, but now featuring the Peanuts for the illustrations. Various editions have been published, including a single-volume edition by Random House and two multi-volume ones by World Publishing, New York – in six volumes (A–Co, Co–Gr, Gr–Mi, Mi–Ri, Ri–Te, Te–Z) and in eight (A–B, C–E, F–H, I–Mo, Mo–P, Q–St, St–Tu, Tu–Z) – all from 1973. Several books are available in digitized form from the Internet Archive. From The Bark of the Beech Tree:

Over the eight volumes, some 2500 words are defined in 512 pages, and there are over 600 pictures, plus 50 full page state maps. Volume 1 carries an introductory “Explanation” on how the dictionary works, and each subsequent volume has a short reminder.

**Source: www.ebay.com** adsm_1084 (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Spine of the single-volume edition, Random House, 1973

**Source: www.abebooks.com** The Bark of the Beech Tree. License: All Rights Reserved.

Covers of the 8-volume edition by World Publishing, 1973

Photo: Bryson Stohr. License: All Rights Reserved.

Back cover of the volume “Gr to Mi” from the 6-volume edition by World Publishing, 1973

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3 Comments on “The Charlie Brown Dictionary by Charles M. Schulz”

Jay Mellor says:
May 13th, 2022 10:07 pm

What in the world is a “Sixties Bookman” really about?

Source: Wikipedia.org
Florian Hardwig says:
May 14th, 2022 6:44 am

Hi Jay,

Follow the link in the footnote and you’ll find the specimen pdf for Bookmania. On pages 14 and 15, Mark Simonson included “The Bookmania Story”, a concise overview of the various Bookmans, with illustrations.

Sixties Bookman [is] closest to the larger sizes of ATF Bookman Oldstyle, but significantly bolder, with more contrast between the thicks and thins than other Bookmans and with smaller serifs. Sixties Bookman expanded on ATF Bookman’s modest but distinctive swash character repertoire with 25 in the roman and 47 in the italic.
One unfortunate thing about Sixties Bookman’s italic is that most of the characters are slanted mechanically, with no optical correction.

Sixties Bookman as shown by Mark Simonson in “The Bookmania Story”

“Sixties Bookman” is not an official name. In period specimens, it typically went under names like Bookman Bold (Italic) with Swash. This variant doesn’t have an entry on its own at Fonts In Use, and is grouped under Bookman.
Ryan Brotherston says:
May 28th, 2022 10:00 pm

I’ve been waiting for this to pop up on here! I had these books growing up and loved the look of them, the lettering on the outside certainly no exception. Sadly, they were all but destroyed through inadequate storage, but I’m glad to see others enjoy them for the same reason too!