In His Own Write

In His Own Write is a book from 1964 by John Lennon. The book consists of short stories and poems, and line drawings, often surreal and always nonsensical. It is notable in that it was the first solo Beatle project in any form. It was followed in 1965 by A Spaniard in the Works.

Lennon was adept at free association and improvisation in his linguistic explorations, which can be seen in both his prose writing and a portion of his lyrics. Use of puns, near-homonyms, bizarre imagery, disconnected narrative threads and references, creative misspellings, and abrupt, unresolved conclusions challenge the reader to either find meaning, or bring their own meaning to the text. It can be inferred that Lennon intended no deep meaning, but rather wanted to demonstrate his free-form creative abilities as well as his sense of humor.

The book was also transformed into a play, co-authored with Victor Spinetti, who directed, at the National Theatre, premièring on 18 June 1968, at the Old Vic. Spinetti and Lennon appeared together in June 1968 on BBC2's Release. During the interview, Spinetti said of the play, "it’s not really John’s childhood, it’s all of ours really, isn’t it John?" John Lennon, assuming a camp voice answered "It is, we’re all one Victor, we’re all one aren‘t we. I mean ‘what’s going on?'." Spinetti said the play "is about the growing up of any of us; the things that helped us to be more aware."

In His Own Write was Lennon's first book, and was originally published in March of 1964 by Simon & Schuster of New York, and Jonathan Cape of Great Britan. Although first issues credit only Simon & Schuster, first run issues of the book were distributed by both publishing companies at the same time. Printed in Great Britan, it enjoyed immediate success. Reported in an article by Tom Wolfe, an initial printing in England sold 50,000 copies the first day, and Simon & Schuster had a first printing of 90,000 in the USA. There have been numerous reprints and subsequent editions, in hard cover and paperback, as recent as the year 2000.

Offered in hard cover it featured a photo of John Lennon taken by Robert Freeman. True, original, first run copies of this book are sometimes hard to identify. There are, however, a few specific details which help to identify true, original, first run copies, from subsequent reprints. Most notable of these is a red sticker, measuring 2 1/4" by 5/8", with rounded corners that read "The writing Beatle!". Some First run issues have been seen without this sticker. Additionally, there is a small printed price marking of $2.50 on the bottom left corner of the back cover. The main title page, on the fourth page, reads "Simon & Schuster, New York 1964", as the only publishing credit. On the reverse side of this page printing is sparse. It has a copyright symbol followed by "1964 by John Lennon", in the top third of the page. On the bottom third of this page is written "Cover photograph by Robert Freeman", with "Printed in Great Britain" written beneath that. Simon & Schuster is also printed on the bottom of the spine, below the title "John Lennon In His Own Write".