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When he wasn’t a musician, writer, artist and visionary thinker, John Lennon wrote lots of letters.
Thirty years after the Beatle was gunned down in New York, Yoko Ono has granted Beatles biographer Hunter Davies permission to publish The Lennon Letters, a collection of more than 100 of his letters and postcards sent to friends, family, newspapers and organizations.
(More on TIME.com: See pics of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in)
Davies is a fitting choice to edit the book. A trustworthy friend of Yoko Ono, he’s the author of the only authorized biography of the British group. Davies sought the letters from their original recipients and owners.
Publisher Little Brown has scheduled the release for October 2012. The letters will be reproduced just as they were made, in Lennon’s handwriting or typing, and will also include “the odd cartoon or doodle,” according to a statement.
The letters apparently evoke a roller coaster of emotions. The statement describes the tone as being “funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished and sometimes heartbreaking.” Makes sense for a man like Lennon.
(More on TIME.com: Behind the camera with the Beatles)