By Charles M. Shultz. As the 1950s close down, Peanuts definitively enters its golden age. Linus, who had just learned to speak in the previous volume, becomes downright eloquent and even begins to fend off Lucy's bullying, while his security neurosis becomes more pronounced. Charlie Brown cascades further down the hill to loserdom, with spectacularly lost kites and humiliating baseball losses. Pig-Pen, Shermy, Violet, and Patty are also around, as is an increasingly Beethoven-fixated Schroeder. But the rising star is undoubtedly Snoopy. No wonder the beagle is the cover star not only of this volume, but of the collector's slipcase. Introduction by Jonathan Franzen. HC, 8.5x7, 344pgs, B&W<p>The Complete Peanuts will run 25 volumes, collecting two years chronologically at a rate of two a year for twelve years. Each volume is designed by the award-winning cartoonist Seth (It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken) and features impeccable production values; every single strip from Charles M. Schulz's 50-year American classic is reproduced better than ever before.