Schulz began to discuss an anthology of his work with Fantagraphics Books in 1997. The idea of a complete compendium of all Peanuts strips, considered the holy grail by fans, was long resisted by Schulz; he did not want some early strips reprinted as he felt they were not as good as the ones he drew later in his career. Indeed, some 2,000 of the 17,897 Peanuts strips had never been compiled into any previous U.S. collection. The first book in the series was published in April 2004 and quickly topped the New York Times Best Seller List.