John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono has sold the publishing rights to a collection of his personal letters which were subject to a massive bidding war by publishing houses.
Persuaded to sell the intellectual rights to them by Beatles biographer Hunter Davis, the collection includes over 150 missives from Lennon sent to record companies and newspapers, as well as fans.
Lennon’s prolific output is expected to provide a rare insight into the daily life and mindset of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century and will no doubt prove to be a must have for fans.
Alan Sampson of the Orion Publishing Groups, which secured the rights for a figure rumoured to be between $800,000 and $1.5 million, said of the collection “These letters have never been collected in one place before, and for the most part they have never been seen before,” he added.
“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.”
