The John Lennon Letters: Edited and with an Introduction by Hunter Davies - Hardcover

Lennon, John; Davies, Hunter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297866346 ISBN 13: 9780297866343

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012

Synopsis

John Lennon was a writer as well as a musician. It was entirely natural for him to put pen to paper whenever he had an idea, a thought, a reaction or a desire to communicate.

He lived - and died - in an age before emails and texts. Pen and ink was what he turned to. John wrote letters and postcards all of his life; to his friends, family, strangers, newspapers, organisations, lawyers and the laundry - most of which were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished and sometimes heartbreaking. For the first time, John's widow, Yoko Ono, has given permission to publish a collection of his letters. The Editor is the Beatles' official biographer, Hunter Davies, who knew John well.

John's letters are in a way something of a mystery - where are they all? Over the years many have come up at auction, then sold to dealers and collectors. Or they have been kept by the recipients, locked up safely. It has been a wonderful piece of detective work tracing many of these 250 letters, postcards and notes, which are arranged in chronological order, so that a narrative builds up, reflecting John's life. It will be visual - in a sense that many of the letters are reproduced as they were, in his handwriting or typing, plus the odd cartoon or doodle. THE JOHN LENNON LETTERS is fundamentally a book to read and study, providing a unique insight into the mind of one of the great figures of our times.

About this title

About the Authors

John Lennon was, as one of the Beatles and the composer of many of their greatest songs one of the most famous people of the 20th century. He died aged 40 in 1980.

Hunter Davies is the author of over thirty books which include such modern classics as the authorised biography of The Beatles, The Glory Game and A Walk Around the Lakes. He has written several other walking books and also a travel biography of Christopher Columbus which took him to the West Indies and the Americas. He is also well known as a broadcaster and journalist and writes for the Independent, Sunday Times, Daily Mail and New Statesman. He was married to the novelist and biographer Margaret Forster from 1961 until her death in 2016.

From the Back Cover

A lifetime of letters, collected for the first time, from the legendary musician and songwriter

[plus facsimiles of one or two of the illustrated letters?]

www.orionbooks.co.uk

[ISBN] 9780297866343

From the Inside Flap

John Lennon was one of the greatest songwriters the world has ever known, creator of 'Help!', 'Come Together', 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'Imagine', and dozens more. But it was in his correspondences that he let his personality and poetry flow unguarded. Now, gathered for the first time in book form, are his letters to family, friends, strangers and lovers from every point in his life. Funny, informative, wise, poetic and sometimes heartbreaking, his letters illuminate a never-before-seen intimate side of the private genius.

This groundbreaking collection of almost 300 letters and postcards has been edited and annotated by Hunter Davies, whose authorised biography The Beatles (1968) was published to great acclaim. With unparalleled knowledge of Lennon and his contemporaries, Davies reads between the lines of the artist's words, contextualising them in Lennon's life and using them to reveal the man himself.

Edition details

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297866346
• ISBN 13: 9780297866343
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400