The John Lennon Encyclopedia

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate book on the magnificent John
Review: Everything Bill Harry publishes on the Beatles is always a high quality, well-researched effort and this is no exception. It's not hyperbole to say that this book contains virtually everything you ever wanted to know about Lennon; the details are prodigious, and it spans over 1,000 pages of text. It's an almost day by day chronicle of Lennon's life from 1940 until his tragic death in 1980. Casual fans might suffocate under the weight of all this info, but for Lennon fanatics, like me, this is nirvana.

The book is equally divided between personal material about John, his relationships, marriages, divorce, and two sons, and his professional career. His partnership with Paul is explored in exhaustive and fascinating detail and no discernible bias can be seen. Bill Harry has written about all of the Beatles but one can never tell which one is his favorite. That's a notable strength in his writing, he has no agenda or axe to grind, he just presents the glorious facts of the Fab Four. The index is easy to follow and cross-referenced so you can easily find what you're looking for.

If you are a serious fan of John Lennon, this is an indispensible guide to his songwriting, personality and his life. If only he had been allowed more than 40 years on earth, how many more classic songs would he have written? Sadly, we will never know, but this celebration of his life is as good as it gets.

Rating:
Summary: Everything but the Glasses
Review: The John Lennon encyclopedia, a book literally as thick as a brick, has probably everything a Lennon or Beatle fan will ever want to know about John Lennon. Within its 1002 pages you'll find information about John's life (childhood, Beatlehood & solo), origins of songs, the books he wrote in the early 1960s, origins of films he worked on with Yoko, relatives, friends, his children, celebrity accquaintences, TV appearances, autobiographies written about John, songs written about John, short stories about John, even messages that psychics claim to have come from John beyond the grave. Yep, absolutely everything about John there was up to the point of publication. The only thing I couldn't find was the origins of John's glasses!

Like the title suggests, the book is written like an encyclopedia. Facts about John have been given a title ("Drugs", "Epstein, Brian", "Mind Games", etc), and arranged in alphabetical order. This makes it very easy to find exactly what you want to know, as well as easy to read. You can dip into it and read as much or as little as you like. It's a good bedtime read for Beatlemaniacs like myself, and makes quite a hefty coffee table book.

This isn't a cash in by some puffed-up biased journalist, like a lot of Lennon nonfiction. This is Bill Harry, a man who not only went to the same art school as John, but was a good friend of his. Bill Harry as accurate and as thorough as he can be, and modest. If you look up "Bill Harry" in the encyclopedia, you won't find it, and when he is mentioned in the various entries about his art college years, Bill Harry talks about himself in the objective third person. Superstar biographies could learn a lot from this one.

An interesting read for the hardcore Beatle fan, and the trivia buff. A casual fan might want to start with the "The Beatles Anthology" instead, as that's written in order, and you'll have a place to start rather than being thrown into John's world. However, if you only want one Lennon nonfiction, this is the one to get.

Rating:
Summary: COULD'VE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER!
Review: This book has its moments, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone. It is full of errors, contradictions, omissions, misspellings, etc. Having previously read another of Billy Harry's books,("The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia") I knew that he wasn't too keen on hiring a good proofreader, but the Lennon book is just too much!!

Rating:
Summary: COULD'VE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER!
Review: This book has its moments, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone. It is full of errors, contradictions, omissions, misspellings, etc. Having previously read another of Billy Harry's books,("The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia") I knew that he wasn't too keen on hiring a good proofreader, but the Lennon book is just too much!!