John Lennon Books
John Lennon was a pivotal figure in 20th-century popular music, whose influence extends beyond melody into activism. His early work with The Beatles defined an era, but his solo career revealed deeper intellectual and political ideas. Lennon's songwriting often explored themes of peace and social change with a rebellious spirit and acerbic wit. His songs became anthems for generations, underscoring his enduring cultural impact.







The Lyrics of John Lennon
- 96 pages
- 4 hours of reading
These are the complete lyrics to John Lennon's solo albums after the breakup of The Beatles. The albums the lyrics are taken from "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band", "Imagine", "Sometime in New York City", "Mind Games", "Shaved Fish", and "Double Fantasy".
Personally compiled by Yoko Ono, this work offers the definitive inside story of the making of the legendary album, detailing the locations, creative team, artworks, and films through the voices of John, Yoko, and those present. It features 80% exclusive, unpublished archive photos and footage of key players, along with lyric sheets, Yoko's art installations, and fresh insights from Yoko and over forty contributors, including Julian Lennon and Klaus Voormann. Yoko expresses gratitude for the participants sharing their truths in their own words and images. In 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded the critically acclaimed album at Tittenhurst Park, where they built a state-of-the-art studio, and at the Record Plant in New York. The title track's lyrics were inspired by Yoko's 1964 book, Grapefruit, for which she was co-credited as a writer in 2017. This work narrates John and Yoko's life, work, and relationship during this creative period, showcasing Yoko's archive through narrative film stills, digitally rendered maps, and evocative interiors. Each chapter and song is introduced by John and Yoko, with Yoko providing additional commentary. The minutiae of locations, key players, music, lyrics, production techniques, and the creative process behind the album cover are meticulously examined, making this a landmark tribute to John and Yoko's cultural legacy.
All We Are Saying
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Lennon's life in his own words - this is an insightful book showing John as he really was.
A lifetime of letters, collected for the first time, from the legendary musician and songwriter. John Lennon is one of the world's greatest-ever song writers, creator of 'Help!', 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', 'Imagine' and dozens more. Now, his letters have been collected and published, illuminating as never before the intimate side of a private genius. Hunter Davies, author of the only authorised biography of The Beatles, has tracked down almost three hundred of John's letters and postcards - to relations, friends, fans, strangers, lovers and even to the laundry. Some of the letters are tender, informative, funny, angry and abusive, and some are simply heart-breaking. Many are illustrated with John's own drawings, doodles and jokes. Davies tells the story of each letter and together they form a compelling narrative, from Lennon's earliest surviving thank-you note, written when he was ten, to his last scribbled autograph given on 8 December 1980 - the day he was shot, aged forty.
"It is fascinating of course to climb inside a Beatle's head to see what's going on there, but what counts is that what's going on there is really fascinating".--London Sunday Times 30 two-color line drawings.
The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon & Yōko Ono
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Contains the complete text of the Playboy interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, recorded shortly before Lennon's murder, and includes Lennon's song-by-song analysis of his music
Back in print for the first time in nearly thirty years, here is Yoko Ono's whimsical, delightful, subversive, startling book of instructions for art and for life."A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality.""Burn this book after you've read it." -- Yoko Ono"This is the greatest book I've ever burned." -- John Lennon
When work started on this book, Yoko Ono freighted two boxcars full of John Lennon's personal memorabilia from New York to Los Angeles - photographs that had never been seen before, drawings, videotapes, poems, unpublished songs and other writings. The Lennon family in England also provided previously unpublished photographs.;The text of the book is entirely made up of unpublished writings by John, while Yoko Ono has made the book a personal tribute to John by writing the introduction.
Conflict Graffiti
- 304 pages
- 11 hours of reading
This study examines the waves of graffiti that occur before, during, and after a conflict—important tools of political resistance that make protest visible and material.Graffiti makes for messy politics. In film and television, it is often used to create a sense of danger or lawlessness. In bathroom stalls, it is the disembodied expression of gossip, lewdness, or confession. But it is also a resistive tool of protest, making visible the disparate voices and interests that come together to make a movement.In Conflict Graffiti , John Lennon dives into the many permutations of graffiti in conflict zones—ranging from the protest graffiti of the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson and the Tahrir Square demonstrations in Egypt, to the tourist-attraction murals on the Israeli Separation Wall and the street art that has rebranded Detroit and post-Katrina New Orleans. Graffiti has played a crucial role in the revolutionary movements of these locales, but as the conflict subsides a new graffiti and street art scene emerges—often one that ushers in postconflict consumerism, gentrification, militarization, and anesthetized forgetting.Graffiti has an unstable afterlife, fated to be added to, transformed, overlaid, photographed, reinterpreted, or painted over. But as Lennon concludes, when protest movements change and adapt, graffiti is also uniquely suited to shapeshift with them.


