Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for May 09, 2016

Albert who?

Must have been Lad: A Dog, or Buff: A Collie/I>, or His Dog, or Further Adventures of Lad, or any one of Terhune’s other dog books.

And I did have to look up Terhune to learn who he was and that he wrote a number of dog books. Well, besides being an author and journalist the guy was a dog breeder so writing stories about dogs probably came naturally to him.

I like these drawings of Snoopy better than the more modern ones.

Snoopy wasn’t a fan of the bunny books yet.

I read the “lad” books years ago. They were quite good.

Look at Snoopy’s face at the third panel, he looks like a bobble head.

Had not thought of Terhune in ages.

Well, of course we can just google these things. As easy as opening a new browser tab if we’re reading the comics on the Internet. But this author must have been very well known at the time if Schulz could just throw the allusion out there and expect people to get it.

Snoopy, read Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Why?

It was the book that started with, “It was a dark and stormy night…”

How about “Call of the Wild” by Jack London? Haven’t read that one since fifth grade but I think Snoopy would like Buck.

Snoopy must have a “thing” for collies

I think it’s great that Charlie Brown reads to Snoopy. One thing I enjoyed the most about being a parent was reading to my daughters when they were young. My oldest one loved the Golden Book of “Snow White”. The youngest one’s favorite was “Pinocchio”. Good times.

I grew up reading Terhune’s books, which had been my brother’s before me. I still have some of them, though old pulp books, even hardcover, don’t hold up at all well.

Jim Kjelgaard was my favorite. “Big Red” and the sequels were the best known, but my favorite was “Desert Dog” about a racing greyhound ending up going feral.

How about Where’s Spot?, or maybe Old Yeller, or even Go, Dog. Go!…

Wow, I haven’t seen one of his books in years. I used to have them all too. I can’t remember what happened to them though.

I had a collie when I was a kid, and I found the Terhune books in my local library at that time. They were already very dated, but still fun to read. They’re in public domain now, so if you have an e-reader you can get them for free.

Thanks Sparky for introducing me to Albert Payson Terhune. I’ll have to visit the Memorial next time I’m in Wayne, NJ