Lennon, John

crudely typed, largely in capitals, containing the text of 17 pieces, 'Alec Speaking', 'Good Dog Nigel', 'A Letter' (here untitled), 'Stub Press', 'On Safairy with Whide Hunter', 'The Famous Five Through Woenoew Abbey', 'All Abord Speeching', 'Halbut Returb' (here untitled), 'The Fingletoad Resort of Teddiviscious', 'Godfrey Wind' (including an additional seven lines cancelled in blue ink), 'You Might Well Arsk' (here untitled), 'The Beafles (a band)', 'The Fat Growth on Eric Hearble', 'The Wrestling Dog', 'A Surprise for Little Bobby', 'Unhappy Frank', and 'Randolf's Party', 8 pages, large post quarto (10 x 8 in.; 252 x 202 mm), at least two paperstocks (one with "Orbit" watermark, the other unwatermarked), one leaf lacking the bottom half, nicks and tears, scattered staining

see catalog
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A major group of early typescripts comprising about half of the textual content of In His Own Write. This is the composition typescript, produced in a rather chaotic manner and written after shows whilst on tour. Lennon here types almost exclusively in upper case with occasionally uneven spacing, and with some fragments typed on the versos or upside down - for example an abandoned parody of the Robin Hood theme ("...ROTTY HOOK AND SOME MUDDY MEN RILING THROUGH THE GLEN ROTTY HOOK..."). Lennon later recalled the composition process:

“I typed a lot of the book and I can only type very slowly, so the stories are short because I couldn’t be bothered going on. And all my life, I never quite got the idea of spelling. English and writing, fine, but actually spelling the words ... I'd spell it as you say it - like Latin, really. Or just try and do it the simplest way, to get it over with, because all I'm trying to do is tell a story and what the words are spelt like is irrelevant. And if it makes you laugh because the word is spelt like that - great. The thing is the story and the sound of the word.” (Anthology, p.134)

These pages contain three pieces that were not included in the book, including two pieces relating to the Beatles (see also next lot) and a first version of the absurd agony column here titled "GODFRY WIND (TO HELP YOU)" (see lot 22) that includes an additional seven lines that were dropped from the later draft. These deleted lines are even more outrageous than the rest of the piece. They include "Fanny of Cheshirt" complaining that "MY HUSBAND CONSTANTLY LOCKS ME IN THE ATTIC WHEN ENTERTAINING HIS FRIENDS", whilst "Godfry" advises one young man: "WELL SYDNEY I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY - TRY DRUGS." 

This group of typescripts probably predate the other typescripts and manuscripts in the current collection by as much as eighteen months. 'You Might Well Arsk' contains many contemporary references to the summer of 1962 (see lot 27), and one of the unpublished pieces relating to The Beatles can be dated to September of that year, as it refers to the band's famous first recording session at Abbey Road studios. This brief "news" item announces the band's first single 'Love Me Do' ("Lub me Jew"), which was recorded 4-11 September of that year and released on 5 October. The piece also comments that "On the udder sibe is names 'How Do 'ee Dob'." This refers to the song 'How Do You Do It', which was recorded at the same sessions and which George Martin originally intended should be the band's first single. In the end 'How Do You Do It' was not released and the Beatles' first B-side was another Lennon-McCartney song, 'P.S. I Love You', so Lennon's "news" item must have been written during the brief window between the recording sessions and the cutting of the record.