Geoffrey Giuliano - Literary Work

Literary Work

Giuliano has written about 35 often-controversial biographies on 1960s musicians and several audio works (100 as of 2011) on subjects such as Frank Sinatra, as well as archival interviews with survivors of the Titanic entitled, That Fateful Night: True Stories of Titanic Survivors In Their Own Words. Giuliano has also authored two London Sunday Times bestselling biographies, Dark Horse: The Secret Life of George Harrison and Blackbird: The Life And Times Of Paul McCartney. Along the way, he has collaborated with John Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird, and with BBC TV personality Gloria Hunniford. Steve Holly wrote the afterword to his Blackbird book, and Timothy Leary penned the afterword to Giuliano's The Lost Beatles Interviews. In late 1998, Random House Audio asked Giuliano to form a company for them called Tribute Audio, which produced a line of celebrity, interview-laced, original spoken word-CDs written, produced and narrated by the author. He worked in that capacity for about five years.

Giuliano has often been a target for many fans of his biographical subjects. On August 11, 1996, the Calgary Sun made this point in a review of his work on the life of the Who's Pete Townshend. "Unlike so many fawning rock biographers who lavish false praise on a bunch of worthless morons, Giuliano has the ability to get to the heart of the man and by doing so gives readers a glimpse of a period in history. Fans will never get closer to the man than in "Behind Blue Eyes" Unfortunately, Giuliano does such a magnificent job that many fans may wish they had never searched so hard." Giuliano told Eye Weekly that he briefly worked for Townshend, but was fired after stealing a tape from him. A research assistant of Giuliano's subsequently wrote to the newspaper to defend him.

A biography Giuliano authored, Lennon In America (released in 2000), was similarly controversial. Giuliano claimed the book was based in part on transcripts of Lennon's journal given to him by the singer Harry Nilsson, who died on January 16, 1994. The claim was made after Nilsson's death, and several people close to Nilsson do not believe he ever had the transcripts in his possession. Washington Post reporter David Segal quoted Giuliano's response when he was asked to corroborate his claim that Nilsson gave him the diaries. "It's obvious that I'm going to do things in an ethical manner." Segal also reported the view of Steven Gutstein, a former New York assistant district attorney who was asked to read the diaries during an early 1980s larceny lawsuit against former Lennon personal assistant Fred Seaman. After reading some of the more sensational claims in Giuliano's book, Gutstein commented, "This is a Mad magazine version of the diaries." Gutstein described his own memory of the diaries as "a lot of philosophical musings combined with mundane details of everyday life." Newsweek reported in May 2000 that Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow) served Giuliano with a subpoena asking him to produce source material for his Lennon book, charging that he "grossly misrepresented" the information he used or made it up. The magazine also stated that Giuliano refused to comply with the subpoena. Giuliano, however, insists that the only legal paper he ever was aware of from Ono was an "invitation" to give testimony at the Frederic Seaman copyright trial. He insists he was never properly served.

Both the public and reviewers were torn over the controversial tome. On July 15, 2000, Colin Carlson of the Library Journal commented, "Non-fans will be put off by this image of Lennon as cad, drug addict, and paranoiac; this often sensationalized account is for voyeurs and fans with deconstructive tendencies and is one of the best, most detailed books available on this subject." A Washington Post review of Giuliano's Lennon book said, "In exhaustive detail, using information purportedly gleaned from an unpublished Lennon diary (a text never directly quoted from), Giuliano reveals the not-so-shocking news that Lennon was not an altogether happy man. In other words, we get more of the character assassination that was begun in such high style by Albert Goldman's notorious The Lives of John Lennon." A "Publisher's Weekly" reviewer commented, "If Giuliano's own double-talk isn't enough to diminish this work's credibility, his endless, voyeuristic descriptions of Lennon's sexual encounters are.".

A September 15, 2006 review of Giuliano's book Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles in Kirkus Reviews said: "The few scraps of new information presented emanate from Giuliano's connection to George Harrison, but he fails to adequately explain his relationship with the former Beatle." George Harrison, interviewed in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992, was asked if he had ever met Giuliano. He replied, "Yeah, I met him briefly. I have no way of recalling what year it was. I met him at the home of "Legs" Larry Smith for possibly thirty minutes. I visited with Mr. Smith and he was in his flat." In the same interview, he stated, "There is a certain trick to the way Giuliano goes about his work. He acts as if he is kind of authorized, and these people, not just him, but all these type of people, have a skill of wheedling their way into places that are going to be some benefit to them in getting their books written." Harrison's wife Olivia wrote a letter to the newspaper The Guardian in 1992 attacking Giuliano. She wrote, "like a starving dog he scavenges his heroes, picking up bits of gristle and sinew along the way." She specifically objected to a George Harrison quote that Giuliano used on the cover of one of his books, stating: "My husband once made the remark: 'That guy knows more about my life than I do.' Giuliano missed the joke and used it to endorse his book."

David Pitt, reviewing for Booklist (published by the American Library Association) looked far more kindly on the work. "Drawing on a variety of exclusive interviews with many of the principals, this latest Beatles bio focuses on an aspect of the group with which some fans may not be sufficiently familiar. Although the group's public image was one of playfulness and big smiles, the Fab Four were often mired in internal politics and conflict. The book details the enormous pressures the Beatles operated under and shows that, in addition to musicians, they very quickly had to become businessmen and diplomats. The Giulianos also offer up an assortment of trivia tidbits that may come as a surprise to some readers. For instance: Paul sang lead vocals on "Love Me Do," although it was supposed to be John; a key line in "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was a blooper; John, not Ringo, played drums on "Back in the USSR." The book's usefulness to Beatle fans will depend entirely on how much they have already read about the group, but one thing is certain: for the average reader, it's an eye-opener."

Newspapers in Great Britain reported in April 2009 that Giuliano had stated that he was instructing lawyers to file suit against John Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird. "There's only one reason she did it, and that's to screw me out of my share," Giuliano was quoted as saying. He was referring to Ms. Baird's deal with Miramax to film a screen version of her 2007 book, Imagine This. Giuliano stated that his lawsuit would request the recall and destruction of Ms. Baird's book, as well as a halt to the production of the Miramax film entitled Nowhere Boy. Guiliano contended that Baird based her 2007 book on an earlier book about Lennon which she co-authored with Giuliano. A spokesman connected with the film production issued a statement that "There is no merit to this claim. We are looking forward to the release." The film's producer, Kevin Loader, commenting on the story, was quoted in May, 2009 as saying, "It's nothing to do with us. I haven't heard from anyone's lawyers."

In early 2010 Giuliano set about re-launching his literary career, founding Icon Editions to publish his extensive backlist and several new books authored with his middle daughter Avalon. iTunes picked up his audio works which instigated the author, redesigning and updating his audio books for download on the site. Another Giuliano endeavor is to get his book, Lennon In America made into a feature film.

A complete list of Giuliano's books (sourced from his Facebook pages) follows:

WORKS BY GIULIANO

The Beatles / A Celebration; John Lennon My Brother (Julia Baird) (Introduction Paul McCartney); Dark Horse / The Life & Art Of George Harrison; Blackbird / The Life & Times Of Paul McCartney; The Beatles Album / Thirty Years Of Music & Memorabilia; The Rolling Stones Album / Thirty Years Of Music And Memorabilia; Paint It Black / The Murder Of Brian Jones; Behind Blue Eyes / A Life Of Pete Townshend; The Illustrated John Lennon; The Illustrated Paul McCartney; The Illustrated George Harrison; The Illustrated Jimi Hendrix; The Illustrated Elvis Presley; The Illustrated Eric Clapton; Vagabond Heart / Rod Stewart The Unauthorized Biography; Two Of Us / John Lennon & Paul McCartney Behind The Myth; The Lost Beatles Interviews (with Vrnda Devi); The John Lennon Interviews (with Vrnda Devi); Things We Said Today / Conversations With The Beatles (with Vrnda Devi); Glass Onion / The Beatles In Their Words (with Vrnda Devi); Gloria / The Authorized Biography Of Gloria Hunniford (with Gloria Hunniford); Lennon In America / Based In Part On The Lost Lennon Diaries 1971-1980; Compassionate Cuisine (with Vrnda Devi); Revolver / A Secret History Of The Beatles (with Avalon Giuliano-Bowden);

UNPUBLISHED TO DATE

The Harrison Chronicles / In George’s Own Words (with Avalon Giuliano); Dear Boy / The Resurrection of Vivian Stanshall (with Avalon Giuliano); Deserted Cities Of The Heart / Cream Strictly Confidential (with Avalon Giuliano);

TRANSLATIONS

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