SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. John Lennon loved wordplay. He wrote songs that have become not only standards but milestones, including "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "Strawberry Fields," with the Beatles; and "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance," on his own. For most of his life, he also wrote letters - to friends and family but also lovers, as he grew up; and strangers, as he grew famous.

Now, Hunter Davies, the British author who wrote the 1968 authorized biography, "The Beatles," has helped annotate almost 300 letters, notes and postcards written in John Lennon's own hand: "The John Lennon Letters." Hunter Davies joins us now from his home in London. Thanks so much for being with us.

HUNTER DAVIES: Thank you.

SIMON: Was John Lennon always writing something?

DAVIES: Yeah, his first reaction to any emotion - whether it was fury or anger or pleasure - was to write things down. It wasn't - he didn't just go to the guitar or the piano. And he also tried to tailor each letter, or postcard, to the recipient.

SIMON: We were fortunate enough to speak to Yoko Ono a few days ago. She has written the foreword. Yoko Ono says in this brief foreword: "You knew he was sending his heart to a friend." And this is what she told us:

YOKO ONO: He was quite the writer. Whenever we went somewhere, he would stop to get postcards and start writing to people at home. He doesn't write something that is just superficial, you know. He just remembered the friend, and he wanted to write to that person.

DAVIES: What Yoko says there, is interesting. When I was with John Lennon during those two years - doing the biography, all those years ago - he seemed to me, totally disorganized. He didn't know his own telephone number; he didn't know his own address; he couldn't drive properly. So he's so untechnical and yet when he went abroad anywhere - as Yoko says there - he obviously managed to take an address book, and he managed to get a postcard. It shows how organized he was. And it shows, also, how he loved sending postcards.

SIMON: Let me ask you about something - because I noticed in this book, specifically. One of the first notes we see - and it's embellished with drawings - to Cynthia Powell, who became his first wife. And I'm struck by a phrase here, which I underscored. John Lennon wrote, "I love you like guitars."

DAVIES: Isn't that nice?

SIMON: Yeah. He goes on, "I love you - I love you like anything, lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely Cyn."

DAVIES: I mean, it's tragic, in a way, to read that. That's the most tumultuous love letter. It goes on and on. It's an eight-page, homemade Christmas card to her. And of course, we Beatles fans know what happened. And later in the book, you get awful letters from John to Cynthia, when they're arguing. But in this early flush of marriage and courtship, his letters and postcards are lovely. Now, of course, one of the big things about John is that he went to art college - but he decorated almost every letter and postcard. So this one you've mentioned, there's a lovely drawing of John and Cynthia together, looking into each other's eyes adoringly. And he does this with every letter.

SIMON: Let me ask you about an entry in here that I think will just excite a lot of people to see it; and that's a stained, frazzled sheet of paper from the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. It's undated but of course, it's pretty easy to determine it was 11 February 1964. This is the Beatles' playlist from a U.S. concert. And maybe I shouldn't give away what's number one.

DAVIES: Oh do so, do so, yeah.

SIMON: All right. "Beethoven."

DAVIES: "Roll Over Beethoven."

SIMON: "Roll Over Beethoven." It's just written as "Beethoven" here.

DAVIES: Of course, yeah.

SIMON: And then "From Me to You" is two; number three, "I Saw Her Standing There"; number four, "This Boy."

DAVIES: On one hand, it's totally banal and boring. But if you're interested in the history of popular music, it is an invaluable document. This is their first concert in the USA. And there was a girl in the front row, screaming and shouting. And when it was over, a kindly security man gave her this list, which he picked up from the floor. And she kept it as a souvenir of that evening.

SIMON: I think a letter that - very famous, for people who follow Beatles history - it's in your book; it's a 1971 letter, a letter to Linda and Paul McCartney. I guess it's sometimes called "the rant letter."

DAVIES: That's right, yeah. That is well-known because it's come up at auction two or three times, and sold for a huge amount of money. I mean, this was the most appalling letter from John. He's ranting and raving. The background to it is that it was the time they were suing each other over Apple, so they were all fallen out. But also he was furious, at the time, because he got it into his head - I'm afraid, rightly - that everybody hated Yoko. And the other Beatles hated Yoko, and they were being horrible to him. So John was very, very protective and very sensitive, so he lashed out even more.

SIMON: We raised this matter with Yoko Ono a few days ago. Here's what she said:

ONO: I think that whenever people were nasty to me - and that was every day, actually - but it becomes out, in writing.

SIMON: Can you still remember ways in which you think people weren't nice to you?

ONO: Well, I mean, give me 20 different ways you can think of. I think that he was more hurt than me because by then, I kind of accepted the fact that it's just going to be like that.

SIMON: Do you think she has it right?

DAVIES: Yeah, they didn't really accept her. I met Yoko when she was filming her famous "Bottoms" film, in whichever year - '66. And then six months later, I walked into Abbey Road and in the bowels of the studio, where no one else was allowed to sit except the roadies, there was John and Yoko, entwined in each other's arms and legs. And the other Beatles - I could see them mouthing some obscenity; saying, who the heck is this? So John, really, had brought her into the inner sanctum.

SIMON: Brought Yoko Ono into the literal space they considered theirs.

DAVIES: Exactly, yes; which no wives were allowed into, up to then - as far as I had observed.

SIMON: Wait - is there anything in these letters that you read through, that you didn't know; that qualifies as a revelation?

DAVIES: No, there's no one revelation. It's just an accumulation of all the aspects of his life - from the age of 10, writing that nice letter to his auntie, thanking her for his Christmas towel - and he says it's the best towel he's ever had; up till a few minutes before he gets killed, age 40. So you see the whole span of his life. And the thing about it, you see it through his eyes, through his handwriting. A biography can never really get as close as letters can. With letters, he's not writing for posterity. It's all coming out, there and then. And it's all emotion, and he does it; then, he's moving on. So it's very revealing, I think.

SIMON: Hunter Davies, in London. He's edited and annotated "The John Lennon Letters." Thanks so much for being with us.

DAVIES: Thank you, that was brilliant.

SIMON: And tomorrow on WEEKEND EDITION, even more about the Beatles. Rachel Martin discusses the new book "Abbey Road: The Best Studio in the World."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEAR YOKO")

JOHN LENNON: (Singing) ...Even after all these years, I miss you when you're not here. I wish you were here, my dear Yoko... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.