IK! - John Lennon Books, Page 1

John & Yoko
John Lennon
Yoko Ono
Sean Lennon
Julian Lennon

Above:
Real Love:
The Drawings for Sean
Published 1999 by Random House

The book's description is just what the title implies. John's drawings for his then-very young son, Sean Lennon.

Yoko writes in her introduction to this book that John proudly framed all of Sean's drawings. Eventually, John and Sean spent time drawing together.

Yoko: "John would draw something and explain to Sean what it was.
'This is a catnapping.'
'Oh.'
Then it was Sean's turn. He would show his drawings and explain, 'This is a bus, and these are the people who want to get on the bus, but they can't because the bus is too small, so they're crying.'
John would write what Sean had said underneath the drawings as titles."

Yoko said this time that John and Sean spent together drawing is "how Sean learned the fun of drawing, the fun of doing things with his dad, and the fun of life."

(Note: These drawings were also recreated on a line of Carter's clothing, which IK! featured several months ago. We will be showing show you those again in the near future.)

See More books...including:

John Lennon: In His Own Write

A Spaniard in the Works

and The Penguin John Lennon

Dozens and dozens of books have been written about John Lennon from every imaginable and even unimaginable perspective.

Albert Goldman took the sleaze angle, seeking out anyone who had even remotely brushed past John and Yoko on the street, while Ray Coleman's excellent biography about John covered his entire life story, minus the often overwrought writing style of Goldman.

There are "I knew him" books by people who knew him well or hardly at all; historical fact books that chronicle his art and recording career; photo albums; songbooks; quotes and more.

My personal favorite John Lennon books..were written by John. "In His Own Write" introduced 60's teens to the world of words that sound wonderful together, even if they don't always make perfect sense. I'm sure I was one of thousands of students who introduced English teachers to John's first collection of witty writings and outrageous drawings. I'm happy to recall, my teacher was very receptive and seemed suitably impressed when I read aloud, "I sat belonely down a tree, humbled fat and small, A little lady sing to me, I couldn't see at all..."

John really didn't have a chance to fully explore his writing. Speculating about what he may have written in his 50's, 60's and 70's is useless. But at least we have his early books and, thanks to Yoko, the later works like "Skywriting By Word of Mouth," and the family books - "Real Love" and "AI: Japan Through John Lennon's Eyes."

This section of our coverage will be devoted to all books great and small about John Lennon. IK! will link most book covers to a bookseller when one is available.