Music

Unseen collection of Lennon letters to be published next year

by Ciaran Thompson

Over 150 unseen letters John Lennon wrote to newspapers, record companies and even a eight-year-old boy will be published next year after Yoko Ono sold the publishing rights to Alan Samson, of the Orion Publishing Group. Ono was apparently persuaded to sell the rights to the letters by the Beatles’ biographer, Hunter Davies.

The letters, which are said to give an insight into Lennon’s daily life, are set to be published in October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Love Me Do”.

“These letters have never been collected in one place before, and for the most part they have never been seen before,” Samson said. “The other reason people have gone crazy for it is the fact that there are half a dozen icons of the 20th century, – Marilyn Monroe, Kennedy, Elvis – and Lennon is one of them.”

Apparently the Orion group spent over £500,000 ($794,660) for the letters. [The Guardian]