The reason John Lennon stopped writing books: “I’m not very keen on being disciplined”

Like many great songwriters and thinkers, John Lennon also tried his hand at writing poetry and prose, publishing two collections of poems, short stories, and drawings during the 1960s: In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. True to Lennon’s signature wit, the publications were dubbed ‘nonsense books’, with both owing their titles to puns.

Before The Beatles rose to fame in the early 1960s, Lennon had previously contributed to Liverpool music publication Mersey Beat. Similarly to Lennon and The Beatles’ musical careers, his books were experimental, employing literary techniques like wordplay, metaphors, and riddles. Lennon’s humour shines through on throwaway ditties like ‘Mean Mr Mustard’ and ‘Polythene Pam’ from 1969’s Abbey Road.

He cited comics Spike Milligan and Stanley Unwin as an influence on his work and was also inspired by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, whose work was notoriously influenced by his experiences with psychedelics and opiates. It may be unsurprising, then, that mere months after publishing his second book, Lennon was penning tracks for Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Carroll’s narrative poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ from Through the Looking-Glass went on to inspire ‘I Am the Walrus’ from the former album.

Lennon is still recognised as one of the greatest songwriters and most influential figures of the 20th Century. His writing partnership with Paul McCartney during The Beatles days saw the pair pushing boundaries musically and lyrically, particularly in the latter half of their back catalogue.

Even after parting ways, Lennon’s solo contributions continued to make waves, with instantly recognisable hits like ‘Jealous Guy’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Instant Karma!’, and ‘Give Peace a Chance’ with the Plastic Ono Band. His increasingly political songwriting, peace activism, and outspoken nature during the 1970s, until his untimely death in 1980, elevated his icon status. But Lennon never released another book in his lifetime after A Spaniard in the Works. That was, until the posthumous publication of Skywriting by Word of Mouth in 1986.

With an unparalleled talent for penmanship, one may wonder why. But Lennon’s demanding schedule and increasing celebrity left little time, and what had once been a hobby began to feel forced as publishers imposed deadlines, leaving little room for Lennon’s natural creative flow: “The second book was more disciplined because it was started from scratch,” Lennon said in The Beatles Anthology. “They said, ‘You’ve got so many months to write a book in.’ I wrote In His Own Write — at least some of it — while I was still at school, and it came spontaneously.”

Lennon was always one to march to the beat of his own drum and worried that he had become reliant on whiskey to get into the authorial mindset: “Once it became: ‘We want another book from you, Mr. Lennon,’ I could only loosen up to it with a bottle of Johnnie Walker, and I thought, ‘If it takes a bottle every night to get me to write…’ That’s why I didn’t write anymore. I’m not very keen on being disciplined.”

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