John Lennon Shared What He Could Have Done if He Wasn’t a Beatle
In 1964, John Lennon extricated his public image from The Beatles when he published the book In His Own Write. The book, which was full of Lennon’s nonsensical poems and short stories, received acclaim from critics. It proved that even if he hadn’t been a famous musician, he may have been able to find success as a writer.
John Lennon shared his plan for life if he weren’t a Beatle
Lennon became a published author in 1964. It wasn’t necessarily something he sought out to do; he had simply amassed enough writing to fill a book.
“It’s about nothing. If you like it, you like it; if you don’t, you don’t. That’s all there is to it,” Lennon said of In His Own Write in The Beatles Anthology. “There’s nothing deep in it, it’s just meant to be funny. I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pocket. When I have enough, I have a book.”
He didn’t think he ever could have become a published author without The Beatles. Still, he knew he would have been a writer regardless of his level of fame. He wondered if he could have been a Beat poet.
“There was never any real thought of writing a book. It was something that snowballed,” he said. “If I hadn’t been a Beatle I wouldn’t have thought of having the stuff published; I would have been crawling around broke and just writing it and throwing it away. I might have been a Beat Poet.”
Unfortunately, Lennon was a bit too late to be a Beat poet. By 1960, the movement had begun to fade.
Critics lauded ‘In His Own Write’
Though Lennon said the content of his book was nonsense, critics found it compelling. The bookstore Foyle’s even hosted a prestigious luncheon in honor of Lennon’s literary achievement.
“The book was an immediate bestseller,” Lennon’s first wife Cynthia wrote in her book John. “Bookshops that had ordered only a few copies demanded more and it was reprinted twice in the week it came out. John was pleased if bemused by the attention it got, and even more so when we heard that a Foyle’s Literary Luncheon had been arranged in his honour at London’s Dorchester Hotel. A Foyle’s luncheon was a great accolade for any author, and for John’s the demand for tickets was unparalleled.”
Unfortunately, Lennon did not realize that this event was a big deal. He arrived hung over and gave a less-than-ten-word speech, causing the crowd to boo him.
John Lennon was determined to be rich and famous even if he never joined The Beatles
Though Lennon wondered if he could have ended up a poor Beat poet, he once said that his goal was to be wealthy no matter what. He would have forsaken artistry for the sake of money.
“I always felt I’d make it, though,” he said in The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “There were some moments of doubt, but I knew something would eventually happen. When Mimi used to throw things away I’d written or drawn, I used to say, ‘You’ll regret that when I’m famous,’ and mean it. I didn’t really know what I wanted to be, apart from ending up an eccentric millionaire. I fancied marrying a millionairess, and doing it that way.”
He once said he was even “quite prepared” to make his millions through a life of crime.
