A lifetime of letters, collected for the first time, from the legendary musician and songwriter.
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 authorized 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, contextualizing them in Lennon's life and using them to reveal the man himself.
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"Woody Allen wrote a short comic piece once called "The Metterling Lists." Part of the joke of it was that it was the collected grocery lists of a great man. I was reminded of this as I finished "The John Lennon Letters" (edited by Hunter Davies). I was tempted-- briefly-- to pick at this book for its inconsequential notes and letters and for not living up to my expectations. I was hoping to find great correspondence between Lennon and other famous artists, and more love letters to Yoko. Instead it is full of postcards, memos to servants, a few short notes to fans, etc., literally ending with Lennon's grocery lists. And, of course, one already knows the windup is going to be sad. BUT I am such a huge fan of the man that, in the end, I was won over by the book, for its humility, for its fun and for its beauty (its physical beauty, hats off to the publisher Little, Brown.) You might have to be a Lennon worshiper to fully appreciate this collection, in toto, but, if you are, the rewards are similar to listening to the entire 5 CD set, "The Lennon Anthology.""
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Corey (5 out of 5 stars)